French stars’ Test places in jeopardy after training no-show

FRANCE coach Bernard Laporte has warned six of his leading players they could have put their Test places in jeopardy by not turning up for this week’s physicals in Marcoussis.

Laporte summoned a 23-man group to France’s official training centre near Paris to take part in a series of fitness tests ahead of the November games against Australia, Canada, Tonga and South Africa.

Nicolas Brusque and Thibault Privat were both missing through injury but Pieter De Villiers, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Yannick Jauzion, Cedric Heymans, Damien Traille and Dimitri Yachvili, who all re-start Top 14 action with their respective clubs this weekend, were noticeable by their absence.

“I am very irritated because we were all waiting for them but out of the 23 called up six are not there because they want to save themselves for this weekend,” said Laporte.

“Those tests are important to us and those who don’t take them will not be selected for November. We are not going to spend our time making 4000 phone calls and we will establish a simple rule; those who don’t turn up for the tests will not play with the national team.”

France will take on Australia on November 5 in Marseille, Canada on the 12th in Nantes, Tonga on the 19th in Toulouse and finally South Africa a week later at the Stade de France.

Meanwhile, the big three of Biarritz, Toulouse and Stade Français will start as favourites when the French club rugby season gets underway tonight.

Biarritz won the title last season, while Toulouse took the European Cup. In both finals Stade Français were the runners-up and on each occasion it was in extra-time.

The wealthy Paris side are determined to put those heartbreaks behind them and get back to the winning ways that brought them back-to-back French league titles in 2003 and 2004.

Current coach Fabien Galthie has brought in an exciting batch of younger players with the picks being U21 international centre Thibault Lacroix who they pinched from Biarritz and Boela du Plooy from South Africa.

And they have toughened up their pack with the acquisition of Italian international back row player Sergio Parisse.

Champions Biarritz have had a relatively quiet close season in contrast to last year, although they have lost several squad players to other clubs including Lacroix to Stade Français and the veteran international winger Philippe Bernat-Salles.

But coach Patrice Lagisquet can still count on a batch of international stars such as backs Nicholas Brusque and Dimitri Yachvili, along with Serge Betsen and Imanol Harinordoquy in the pack.

Over at Toulouse the big news in the close season was the acquisition of exciting international flanker Yannick Nyanga, a dynamic player seen as the “new Serge Betsen.”

Nyanga will join up in the Toulouse pack with France skipper Fabien Pelous and new signing from Ireland Aidan McCullen.

Elsewhere there has been an influx of players from outside of France, some from the Six Nations like Scotland’s Nathan Hines who has joined Perpignan and Welsman Mefin Davies who is at Bayonne, but mostly from the southern hemisphere.