Laporte: Bring on England's big guns

France coach Bernard Laporte insists he isn’t worried by the return of England’s star players for the second Test at Twickenham tomorrow.

England coach Clive Woodward announced his squad for the World Cup warm-up clash just four days after suffering a 17-16 defeat to Laporte’s men in Marseille last Saturday.

Woodward recalled most of his key players – including Jonny Wilkinson, captain Martin Johnson, back row stars Richard Hill and Neil Back and centre Will Greenwood – but Laporte is unconcerned.

He said: “I am not surprised that Woodward recalled his big stars.

“They had to come back at some point, otherwise they would not have played between their summer tour in Australia and New Zealand and the World Cup start.

“And not playing for four months at all would have been completely inconceivable.

“But I don’t think that the fight will be tougher than in Marseille. It will be very tough, yes, but tougher, certainly not.

“It is true that Wilkinson’s presence will weigh on the match, but as usual this is England’s collective strength that we have to fear, not individuals.”

Laporte, who fielded a strong side for the Marseille game, has echoed Woodward’s approach of last week by naming a less familiar squad, including 13 new players.

Many of the French players who will start on Saturday, including Dimitri Yachvili, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Olivier Milloud, Christian Labit and South Africa-born Brian Liebenberg, have little experience of major sides.

But Laporte is adamant it will be a beneficial experience for them just five weeks before the start of the World Cup.

“That is an excellent thing for some of the youngest capped players to play in such a context,” he said.

“Some of them, like Poux, Milloud and Labit will rediscover the very high level, while others like Liebenberg or Yachvili will discover it simply for the first time.”

The only injury problem concerns lock Jerome Thion who has a shoulder problem and will be replaced on the bench by Fabien Pelous.

There are also doubts over prop Poux, who did not train on Wednesday because of a slight thigh problem.

If he is unfit, Sylvain Marconnet is expected to replace him in the starting line-up.