Dusautoir the latest French icon

FORGET Raphael Ibanez, Frederic Michalak and even Sebastien Chabal. Many feel Thierry Dusautoir could be the new face of French rugby.

When coach Bernard Laporte named his 30-player squad for the World Cup on June 14, he omitted the 25-year-old flanker but named him on his 12-man reserve list.

“After the coach rang to tell me I wasn’t in the squad, I felt really down because I thought I deserved a place,” he told reporters yesterday. “When he rang again to tell me I was in, I decided to lock all my doubts and complexes in a closet and to do everything to win a berth in the team.”