French squad angered by Laporte tinkering

Pirate Irwin, Paris

Laporte made five changes to the side that scraped a fortunate 16-9 win over Scotland last week and selected his 24th different halfback partnership in 61 tests by recalling Dimitri Yachvili at scrum-half in place of Pierre Mignoni.

“We have to sustain the competition between the scrum-halves. Mignoni had a good second half against Scotland, but we’re not

going to let that limit us,” Laporte said. His logic failed to impress Mignoni. “I can’t see what he means,” he said.

When Laporte picked Yann Delaigue and Mignoni for the Scotland match Laporte said he could not overlook Mignoni just because

Delaigue was not the first-choice place-kicker for his club Castres.

Now he has recalled Yachvili, who is the first-choice kicker for Biarritz. At first Laporte said

Delaigue would continue with his kicking duties but when questioned further he agreed Yachvili would do the kicking at Twickenham.

“I can’t make head or tail of him,” added Mignoni. Another unhappy man was hooker William Servat, who before the Six Nations had heard Laporte talking about converting him into a number eight.

“I had four bad throws at the lineouts,” said Servat, who misses out on a 12th consecutive cap. “I accept the decision and I’ll get back to work.”

Servat is replaced by Sale’s Sebastien Bruno who gains his first start after four appearances as a replacement.

Another Laporte innovation sees Bourgoin openside flanker Julien Bonnaire at number eight and Sale’s number eight Sebastien Chabal at openside. Perpignan tight-head prop Nicolas Mas, who enjoyed 14 minutes against New Zealand in 2003, is recalled for the injured Pieter de Villiers.

And right wing Jimmy Marlu, three caps as a replacement in the last seven years, is on the left wing.