In-favour Mignoni still not counting on France starting place

PIERRE MIGNONI will start his third match in a row for France when Wales go to Paris on Saturday, but he does not feel the scrum-half jersey is his for keeps just yet.

The diminutive Clermont-Auvergne number nine has been one of Les Bleus’ stellar performers in this year’s RBS 6 Nations Championship campaign.

Superb in the 39-3 opening-day win over Italy, he was just as solid — if not as spectacular — in the 20-17 victory against Ireland at Croke Park.

Despite pressure from scrum-half rivals Dimitri Yachvili and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Mignoni has been retained for the Stade de France clash against the Welsh this weekend.

He is in the middle of his best run of games in a France jersey in his career, but the 29-year-old is not getting carried away.

“I am very happy because I thought that there was going to be rotation,” he said.

“It is the first time that I have played three matches in a row. I have the taste for it and I take it as a sign of confidence (by the selectors).

“But I still don’t consider myself a player who is settled in the team, far from it. There are lots of things I need to do and prove. We will have the reviews later.”

Unlike Elissalde and Yachvili, goalkicking is not one of Mignoni’s strong points, and that has held him back in recent years.

But he now has a genuine kicker in fly-half David Skrela next to him, and Mignoni has prospered as a result.

The duo have formed a strong partnership at half-back, and that could well be coach Bernard Laporte’s first-choice pairing for the World Cup later this year.

Mignoni added: “We are progressing slowly. We have only played two games and things are happening naturally. I feel good with him. He is a good player with a lot of qualities. We forget sometimes that David is also a strong defender.”

Mignoni and Skrela are two of the seven players who have been named in every starting XV for France.

Elvis Vermeulen, meanwhile, is about to start his first match in the tournament.

The number eight, a team-mate of Mignoni at Clermont, has profited from the leg injury suffered by back-row rival Sebastien Chabal, and has been selected for Saturday.

“There is not too much pressure on me,” he said. “I think I have the same state of mind that I had in the autumn.

“I am going to give my maximum and afterwards I will perhaps ask myself one or two questions.”