Philippe Saint-Andre, the coach of the French rugby team has released his final list of players for the forthcoming Rugby World Cup, taking place in England but Francois Trinh-Duc, the experienced No. 10 was conspicuously absent. The 28-year old player had a brilliant performance in the last World Cup final match in Auckland in 2011 when his team was narrowly beaten by the All Blacks. Trinh-Duc’s place will be filled by another experienced flyhalf, Frederic Michalak.
A major shake-up seems to have taken place in the French team, after France secured a narrow win in their warm-up match against England. Coach Saint Andre has left out popular players like centre Remi Lamerat, back-row forward Yoann Goujon, lock Sebastien Vahaamahina and prop Xavier Chiocci.
France withstood England last Saturday by producing a more dominant forward performance which enabled them to defeat England 25 – 20. In a match played a week before, the French team was beaten by their English opponents 19-14 at Twickenham. However, in Saturday’s match France led 15 – 6 at half time, but England came back stronger in the second half to reduce the tally.
France opened the scoring three minutes after the match began through a penalty that was well converted by fullback Scott Spedding. Then the home side scored four more penalties through Frederic Michalak, the fly-half who has become the highest all time points-scorer for the French team.
Unfortunately, during the first-half, the English team struggled without success to get a foothold in the match, due to multiple errors committed in quick succession. Eventually, the home team dominated the game and their opponents could not gain possession within the French half of the field.
Shortly after England’s fly-half, George Ford had scored two penalties, Chris Robshaw, the captain of the team, admitted that the number of errors committed by his team were too many for them to win. He told a Sky Sports reporter that the team was not disciplined enough in the first half, and they gave away too many penalties.
Robshaw said, however, that his side deserved credit for bouncing back and playing well in the second half. He was quick to add that you cannot give top sides like France a head start like they did in the first half and expect to return and level up or win the game at the end. England is scheduled to play their opening game at the World Cup against Fiji on September 18. The massive home support enjoyed by the English team is expected to raise the sale of Rugby World Cup tickets for this tournament.
Meanwhile, France has been placed in the same group as Italy and World number 2 side Ireland who are also current Six Nations Champions. That is probably why Philippe Saint-Andre has selected players he believes are currently in top form.
His final team list includes forwards like: Uni Antonio, Eddy Ben Arous, Vincent Debaty, Benjamin Kayser, Guilhem Guirado, Rabah Slimani, Nicolas Mas, Pascal Pape, Yoann Maestri, Alexandre Flanquart, and Damien Chouly. Those who will play as backs include: Frederic Michalak, Sebastien Tillous-Borde, Morgan Parra, Rory Kockott, Gal Fickou, Alexandre Dumoulin, Mathieu Bastareaud, Remi Tales, Scott Spedding, Brice Dulin, and Wesley Fofana.