Jauzion stays on bench as Laporte makes four changes
Laporte has named the same backs who starred against Namibia, which means David Marty holds his place at centre with Yannick Jauzion on the bench.
There are four changes in total from the Namibia game: in the pack, Jerome Thion comes in for Lionel Nallet and Serge Betsen replaces Yannick Nyanga, while captain Raphael Ibanez replaces Dimitri Szarzewski at hooker. Olivier Milloud at prop (for Jean-Baptiste Poux) is the other change.
Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan isn’t the only one under pressure ahead of the game, it emerged yesterday. At the team announcement in the Centre National de Rugby in Marcoussis, Laporte dismissed reports in a satirical magazine here in France that his impending appointment as Minister for Sport might fall through if his side don’t do well in the World Cup.
“The two functions have nothing to do with each other,” said Laporte. “I’ll take my post no matter what happens.”
Having dealt with the political questions, Laporte gave his reasons for dropping Jauzion, a move which has raised eyebrows in France.
“Yannick’s form isn’t as good as the others,” said Laporte. “Since we started preparing for the competition he’s missed 35% of training, because of small physical problems and some personal problems (a family bereavement). We’ve discussed this with the physical trainers and they’ve confirmed that Yannick wouldn’t be able to last 80 minutes.”
Elsewhere in the three-quarters, Laporte has gone with form players, Vincent Clerc and Cedric Heymans in particular.
“After the performances of Cedric and Vincent it was difficult to discard them,” said Laporte. “Vincent is without doubt the winger who is in form at the moment, he wins so many duels. Cedric also has a precious left foot when it comes to our kicking game.”
There are no questions about new cult hero Sebastian Chabal either, who retains his place in the second row after his stunning performance against Namibia.
“He gets the top billing,” said Laporte. “He brings something to the team with everything which is happening around him, because he is performing on the pitch. He transmits confidence to the team.”
France captain Raphael Ibanez had a word for his Wasps team-mate Eoin Reddan, who will feature at scrum-half for Ireland tomorrow night.
“I haven’t been talking to him, but I’m really happy for him, it’s a great reward for him. He’s a great player, a good team-mate at Wasps and I think he’s improved a lot in his spell in England. I’ve no doubts about his quality for the game tomorrow. He can be very dangerous opposition for any team.”
So will Ibanez be paying particular attention to his team-mate?
“Not me especially, but Jean-Baptiste (Elissalde), as scrum-half, will have to be very aware of Eoin’s skills.”
Elissalde’s half-back partner Frederic Michalak was talking Ireland up yesterday: “They are a team with a strong mental attitude. We know them quite well and even like us, if they have not started well, they are still a great team and we need to be cautious.
“First of all we will try to win the match. If, on top of that, we can score tries, even better. Since we lost our first match against Argentina, all our matches now are important. We’re not asking questions, we know we have to win all our matches.”
Powerful Biarritz flanker Serge Betsen was honest about the dramatic late win in Croke Park last February: “We proved that we have a great deal of determination, but we were also a bit lucky as well, it’s up to us to destabilise them and score as many points as possible to win,” and he also sounded a note of caution for any French fans expecting Ireland to roll over in the Stade de France tomorrow evening.
“We know them well but this time the context is different,” said Betsen. “We have to make sure we are extremely alert and play a more efficient game. I think it’s important to protect our chances of qualifying and we must be serious and alert. It’s always encouraging to know our opponents are not at their best, but they could rediscover their form at any moment.
“They have quality players in the backs who are very quick and lively. They have (Ronan) O’Gara, (Gordon) D’Arcy and (Brian) O’Driscoll who is probably the key to their team. Their forwards are solid and we have to be aggressive and physical in the scrum and line-out to get the ball to our backs.”
Prop Olivier Milloud agreed with Betsen, suggesting Ireland are keen to make up for past defeats.
“I think they’re going to roll up their sleeves and we’re expecting a big occasion. We have to play with more desire and keep the ball. The objective is to take the five points, but we can’t put the cart before the horse. We will try to advance progressively.
“I think that, like us, they have fallen from a great height and didn’t expect such a tough pool. They are a bit nervous but the difference between us and them is they have won all their matches.”
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