France face New Zealand in the second of two autumn Tests today desperate to avenge last week's humiliating 47-3 defeat.
France coach Bernard Laporte has wielded the axe and made seven changes to the side that suffered that embarrassing seven-try rout in Lyon.
"We've learned our lessons from the crushing defeat in the first test," team manager Jo Maso said.
PHOTO: AP
Ibanez captain
Veteran hooker Raphael Ibanez will captain the side, with Fabien Pelous out injured. In comes abrasive flanker Remy Martin, with the equally tough Serge Betsen named as a replacement.
Bourgoin prop Olivier Milloud will start while Toulouse's Jean-Baptiste Elissalde replaces Dimitri Yachvili at scrumhalf to partner Damien Traille for the first time.
Elissalde's club teammate Cedric Heymans replaces Christophe Dominici on the right wing while the fullback spot goes to Agen's Pepito Elhorga, who replaces Julien Laharrague.
Winger Aurelien Rougerie, whose badly missed tackle on Sitiveni Sivivatu handed his opposite number the All Blacks their opening try in the Lyon match, said the French camp could not afford to be pessimistic.
"The French team didn't beat the Springboks [36-26] in June by waving a magic wand. We have to take up the right path again. To be positive," Rougerie said. "Everyone must raise their level individually and we will raise our level as a group. And we must improve our organization defensively."
The All Blacks' assistant coach Wayne Smith said his side was braced for a backlash from France, adding that Laporte had been right to ring the changes after his side suffered their largest home defeat in Lyon which saw the French players roundly booed and whistled off the pitch.
"France are under a lot of pressure from the French to try to play a bit more," said Smith, who was head coach of New Zealand for the 2000 and 2001 seasons, with a record of 12 wins from 17 games.
"They had to make some changes. It shows they're being proactive. They look as if they've stiffened up the attack. We expect them to take us on up front and be aggressive," he said.
The All Blacks show five changes from Lyon, notably in the centers, where the explosive Ma'a Nonu has been selected alongside Mils Muliaina. Chris Jack returns at lock, Keven Mealamu at hooker and Byron Kelleher at scrumhalf.
fired-up
Smith said he was "expecting France to be a lot better. They would have hated to be smacked like that and criticized by their own people, public and media."
The former outside-half, capped 17 times by the All Blacks in the early 1980s, added that France's problems would not be immediately solved on the training ground.
"I think training will be irrelevant. It's a mental question: who'll turn up on the day. In any case I think they'll throw everything against us.
"Our job is to make sure we go out at 9pm on Saturday and put in a performance we can be proud of," Smith said of a game that will also celebrate 100 years of Test rugby in France.
Teams (15-1)
France
Pepito Elhorga (Agen); Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont), Florian Fritz (Toulouse), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Cedric Heymans (Toulouse); Damien Traille (Biarritz), Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (Toulouse); Remy Martin (Stade Francais), Elvis Vermeulen (Clermont), Julien Bonnaire (Bourgoin); Pascal Pape (Castres), Lionel Nallet (Castres); Pieter De Villiers (Stade Francais), Raphael Ibanez (Wasps/ENG, capt), Olivier Milloud (Bourgoin)
Reserves: Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Loic Jacquet (Clermont), Serge Betsen (Biarritz), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), David Marty (Perpignan), Christophe Dominici (Stade Francais)
New Zealand
Leon MacDonald (Crusaders); Josevata Rokocoko (Blues), Malili Muliaina (Chiefs), Ma'a Nonu (Hurricanes), Sitiveni Sivivatu (Chiefs); Dan Carter (Crusaders), Byron Kelleher (Chiefs); Richie McCaw (Crusaders, capt), Rodney So'oialo (Hurricanes), Jerry Collins (Hurricanes); Ali Williams (Blues), Chris Jack (Crusaders); Carl Hayman (Highlanders), Keven Mealamu (Blues), Tony Woodcock (Blues)
Reserves: Andrew Hore (Hurricanes), Neemia Tialata (Hurricanes), Jason Eaton (Hurricanes), Chris Masoe (Hurricanes), Andrew Ellis (Crusaders), Nick Evans (Highlanders), Luke McAlister (Blues)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS