Laporte ‘has nothing to hide’ ahead of England clash

FRANCE coach Bernard Laporte insists he has nothing to hide when his side tackles Six Nations Grand Slam champions and World Cup favourites England today.

England coach Clive Woodward has named virtually a second XV while Laporte has picked a near full-strength team for the first of two Tests against England.

The return match is at Twickenham next week and then the two sides are expected to clash in the World Cup semi-finals in Sydney on November 16.

“We have nothing to hide,” Laporte said. “And there’s no point in drawing any hasty conclusions from a match which for us provides an excellent opportunity of running the rule over the squad.

“If we win that doesn’t mean we’re better than them. They’re No 1 in the world.”

And he denied that Woodward was lining up a B side. “This team put 40 points past Wales. It illustrates perfectly their strength in depth.”

Woodward made 10 changes from the side that thrashed Wales 43-9 in Cardiff last Saturday, giving Austin Healey, Iain Balshaw and Paul Grayson a chance to prove themselves.

England are seeking their 15th successive Test victory, having gone 18 months unbeaten since they lost to France during the 2002 Six Nations Championship.

Meanwhile, Australia’s World Cup defence suffered a major blow yesterday with the news that injured No 8 Toutai Kefu could miss the entire tournament.

The team vice-captain will visit a specialist on Monday to check his cracked shoulder blade, which might require major surgery.

It was initially expected Kefu, who suffered the injury in Australia’s 21-17 Bledisloe Cup loss to New Zealand two weeks ago, would miss only contact training for four weeks.

He may require a shoulder reconstruction, or at the least an arthroscopic procedure, which would rule him out for a further six weeks.

“They knew there was a crack in the shoulder but now they think it may run through the socket and be affecting the rotator cuff,” Kefu admitted.

The 30-man Wallabies squad for the World Cup will be named on Thursday.

Ulster and Springbok prop Robbie Kempson has been forced out of the South African World Cup squad with a persistent elbow injury which needs surgery.