RBS 6 Nations 2012: France Name Starting XV to Face Ireland

By Sport Desk; published on February 10, 2012 at 11:33 am

France head coach, Philippe Saint-Andre, had named an unchanged 22 man squad to face Ireland, in their second RBS 6 Nations 2012 fixture, but has been forced to make one change, following the midweek injury to Dimitri Yachvili.

Scrum Half Yachvili exits the squad, with Morgan Parra restored to a starting berth. Stade de France’s Julien Dupuy comes onto the replacements bench as a stand in for Parra.

There have also been four changes to the starting lineup from the team which faced Italy a week ago.

On the front row, Jean-Baptiste Poux and hooker Dimitri Szarzweski come in for Debarty and Servat, who move to the bench, while lock, Yoann Maestri, comes in to replace Lionel Nallet. Maestri is making his first ever RBS 6 Nations start.

The final change for France is the experienced flanker, Imanol Harinordoquy, who will start at 7 in place of Julien Bonnaire, who moves to an impressive looking bench.

France will be captained for the 28th time by flanker Thierry Dusautoir in their match against Ireland, who are looking for a first win following a narrow opening week home defeat against Wales.

All of France’s experienced squad has at least one cap to his name, including last week’s first timer, Wesley Fofana, in centre, who retains his place after an impressive debut match against Italy.

France Starting XV to Face Ireland, RBS 6 Nations 2012

15 Maxime Medard (Toulouse)
14 Vincent Clerc (Toulouse)
13 Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne)
12 Wesley Fofana (Clermont Auvergne)
11 Julien Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne)
10 Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier)
9 Morgan Parra (Clermont Auvergne)
1 Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse)
2 Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais Paris)
3 Nicolas Mas (Perpignan)
4 Pascal Pape (Stade Francais Paris)
5 Yoann Maestri (Toulouse)
6 Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, Capt)
7 Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz Olympique)
8 Louis Picamoles (Toulouse)

France Replacements

16 William Servat (Toulouse)
17 Vincent Debaty (Clermont Auvergne)
18 Lionel Nallet (Racing-Metro 92)
19 Julien Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne)
20 Julien Dupuy (Stade Francais Paris)
21 Lionel Beauxis (Toulouse)
22 Maxime Mermoz (Perpignan)

France v Ireland will kick-off at 21:00 CET (20:00 GMT) on the evening of Saturday 11th February 2012, at Stade de France, Paris.

Posted by Sport Desk on February 10, 2012. Filed under 6 Nations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

News Tags: Aurelien ROUGERIE, Biarritz Olympique, Clermont Auvergne, Dimitri Szarzewski, France, Francois Trinh-Duc, Imanol Harinordoquy, Ireland, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Julien BONNAIRE, Julien Dupuy, Julien MALZIEU, Lionel BEAUXIS, Lionel NALLET, Louis Picamoles, Maxime MEDARD, Maxime Mermoz, Montpellier, Morgan Parra, Nicolas MAS, Paris, Pascal Pape, Perpignan, Philippe Saint-Andre, Racing-Metro 92, Stade de France, Stade Francais Paris, Thierry Dusautoir, Toulouse, Vincent Clerc, Vincent DEBATY, Wesley FOFANA, William SERVAT, Yoann MAESTRI.