French coach Philippe Saint-André said he was going to make changes to the French team to face Ireland this weekend and he has lived up to that promise.
The new French coach has made four changes to the side that had it relatively easy against Italy on Saturday, all of which come in the forward division.
If Ireland thought they were getting off lightly, however, they can think again, as amongst the new faces coming into the side are prop Jean Baptise Poux and the irrepressible back row forward with the most protective father in world rugby, Imanol Harinordoquy, two of the stars of the French Rugby World Cup campaign.
Poux and Harinordoquy replace Vincent Debaty and Julien Bonnaire respectively, while in the other changes, Dimitri Szarzewski and Yoann Maestri come in for William Servat and Lionel Nallet.
Ominously for Ireland, despite France looking in complete control against the Azzurri, Saint-Andre felt that his charges lacked vitality at times at the weekend, a mistake that daren’t be made when Deccie and the lads come to town on Saturday night.
“We thought we needed some new blood,” Saint-Andre said.
“Maybe we put too much work in last week because it’s true we lacked a bit of vitality against Italy at the start of the game.
“No-one is being punished – it’s team-comes-first approach. There are just some adjustments made, taking into account it’s Ireland we are playing.”
Kick-off at the Stade de France is on Saturday at 8pm.
France: Maxime Medard; Vincent Clerc, Aurelien Rougerie, Wesley Fofana, Julien Malzieu; Francois Trinh-Duc, Dimitri Yachvili; Louis Picamoles, Imanol Harinordoquy, Thierry Dusautoir; Yoann Maestri, Pascal Pape; Nicolas Mas, Dimitry Szarzewski, Jean-Baptiste Poux
Replacements: William Servat, Vincent Debaty, Lionel Nallet, Julien Bonnaire, Morgan Parra, Lionel Beauxis, Maxime Mermoz
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