France coach Bernard Laporte has made five changes to the team to play Ireland in the Six Nations in Dublin on Sunday from the one that hammered Italy 39-3 on the tournament's opening weekend.
Three changes come in the pack, Stade Francais prop Sylvain Marconnet taking the place of Olivier Milloud, Castres lock Pascal Pape replacing Jerome Thion and barn-storming Biarritz No. 8 Imanol Hardinordoquy coming in for Julien Bonnaire.
Marconnet will win his 70th cap against the Irish, making him France's most-capped prop.
PHOTO: AP
Milloud, Thion and Bonnaire all drop to the bench, along with winger Cedric Heymans, replaced in the starting XV announced on Tuesday by Toulouse teammate Vincent Clerc.
The final change sees Perpignan centre David Marty in for Florian Fritz, who has dropped out of the Six Nations squad after injuring his tibia in the mauling of Italy last Saturday.
"The five changes are logical given our strategy, which is to give game time to the maximum number of players," France manager Jo Maso said.
PHOTO: AP
"The players who are out of the team are not at fault," coach Laporte insisted.
But Laporte did say that the selection of Harinordoquy came on the back of a poor lineout display against Italy -- eight lineouts were lost on the French throw.
"Imanol is, perhaps more so than Julien Bonnaire, a better lineout player," he said.
Maso warned that there would be further team changes for the game against Wales in Paris on Feb. 24.
"There will be still more changes for the match against Wales. It's decided and we will follow our philosophy. In the meantime, the selected players will have the chance on Sunday to prove to us that the victory in Italy was not simply a flash in the pan," he said.
France team:
Clement Poitrenaud, Vincent Clerc, David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Christophe Dominici, David Skrela, Pierre Mignoni, Imanol Harinordoquy, Sebastien Chabal, Serge Betsen, Pascal Pape, Lionel Nallet, Pieter De Villiers, Raphael Ibanez, Sylvain Marconnet.
Replacements: Sebastien Bruno, Olivier Milloud, Jerome Thion, Julien Bonnaire, Dimitri Yachvili, Lionel Beauxis, Cedric Heymans.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but