France
coach Marc Lièvremont has named an unchanged 23-man squad
for their Grand Slam showdown with England following 'Les
Bleus' emphatic 46-20 home win against Italy on Sunday.
France
rain in six tries as they dominated Italy in Paris, with
David Marty (2), Imanol Harinordoquy, Marc Andreu, Yannick
Jauzion and Alexandre Lapandry all crossing before Italy
rallied with two late scores from Carlo Del Fava and Pablo
Canavosio.
The
victory maintained France's unbeaten record in this year's
RBS Six Nations and means they now only have to beat England
at the Stade de France on Saturday to claim their first
Grand Slam since 2004.
Biarritz
number eight Harinordoquy started the scoreboard rolling
after a snappy break from scrum-half Morgan Parra, with
Perpignan centre David Marty - starting in place of the
rested Mathieu Bastareaud - going over twice before the
break as France went in 22-3 ahead.
Any
thoughts of an Italian comeback were then firmly swept aside
as Castres winger Andreu celebrated his first start with a
try, before Stade Toulousain veteran Jauzion and Clermont's
former France under-21 captain Lapandry completed the rout.
Parra,
who enjoyed another fine game, chipped in with 16 points as
France surged 46-6 ahead before a plethora of late
replacements disrupted their rhythm and allowed Italy their
late consolation tries.
Attention now firmly turns to their weekend
encounter with England, with the match given added spice by
the knowledge France are also out to avenge their 34-10
humiliation at Twickenham last season. That defeat still
hurts on this side of 'Le Channel' and France now have the
best possible way to vanquish that painful memory, by
gaining revenge with a victory that would also seal both the
Championship and the hallowed Grand Slam.
Lièvremont was understandably delighted after dispatching an
Italian side which had previously beaten Scotland and run
England close. "We are both happy and relieved," he said
afterwards. "The players played the match in the right
fashion in two similar halves of rugby; the first 25 minutes
of excellent rugby and 15 minutes of taking our feet off the
pedal."
But the
victorious coach also had words of warning for those
believing beating England to claim the Grand Slam is now a
foregone conclusion.
"We all
know that England is a team with enormous potential," he
said. "We know that this English team is capable of playing
better. They have not shown that so far in the tournament,
or if they have only at intermittent intervals. It is
imperative we prepare well for their visit and that they
will be at their best. We also have to recover from this
match well and convince ourselves that we are facing a
superb team," added Lièvremont.
That
last comment will hurt Martin Johnson but England will
undoubtedly travel with questions continuing to be asked
about both their style of play and their leadership - both
on and off the pitch - after a gruelling but dour 15-15 away
draw with Scotland.
Once
more there was precious little flair on display from
Johnson's side, although they could have nicked the win at
the death had replacement fly-half Toby Flood - on for the
concussed Jonny Wilkinson - succeeded with a last-gasp
drop-goal.
As it
is, the draw was probably a fair result and leaves Johnson
and company to face another awkward week of media criticism
before entering the Paris cauldron that will be the Stade de
France.
France squad for England:
Forwards: T Domingo (Clermont Auvergne), C Baiocco
(Racing-Métro 92), N Mas (Perpignan), J Poux (Stade
Toulousain), W Servat (Stade Toulousain), D Szarzewski
(Stade Francais), S Chabal (Racing-Métro 92), L Nallet
(Racing-Métro 92), J Pierre (Clermont Auvergne), J Bonnaire
(Clermont Auvergne), T Dusautoir (Stade Francais, Capt), I
Harinordoquy (Biarritz), A Lapandry (Clermont Auvergne)
Backs: M Parra (Clermont Auvergne), F Trinh-Duc
(Montpellier), M Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Y Jauzion
(Stade Toulousain), D Marty (Perpignan), M Andreu (Castres),
J Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne), A Palisson (Brive), C
Poitrenaud (Stade Toulousain), D Yachvili (Biarritz)
