RBS Six Nations: Lièvremont's indecision leads to muddled selection for 'Les Bleus'

The 2011 Rugby World Cup is now just six months away, but far from finalizing his line-up it appears that France head coach Marc Lièvremont is becoming increasingly mired down by indecision.

Twelve months ago 'les Bleus' were sweeping all before them amid of a tide of optimism as they headed towards the Grand Slam, but this time around the coach's constant chopping and changing is betraying a general mood of uncertainty.

Lièvremont may be sure of his front five - although he even tweaked that for Saturday's clash with Italy - but his dithering over the key positions of number eight, scrum-half and full-back belies an underlying confusion.

Stade Toulousain's Maxime Médard returns as full-back against the Azzurri after proving his fitness last weekend, but the in-form flyer has been used more on the wing that at No 15 by his club this season, with Guy Noves preferring Clément Poitrenaud at the rear. The latter certainly hasn't helped his cause with some butter-fingered displays for France of late, but the use of players out of their normal club positions is a specialty trait of Lièvremont. He has shunted Biarritz's Damien Traille from full-back to centre to fly-half - and now the bench - while Clermont skipper Aurélien Rougerie has been moved in from the wing to outside centre, although with greater success.

In many ways Traille's versatility has been his undoing, but Lièvremont's refusal to name a specialist No 10 as cover fro François Trinh-Duc remains a gamble.

But it is in the scrum-half and number eight positions that Lièvremont is showing his real talent for dithering. For the past 18 months Clermont's Morgan Parra has been steadily building an international double act for Trinh-Duc, only for the talented 22-year-old to now find himself on the outside following Lièvremont's decision to prefer Dimitri Yachvili.

Parra was Top 14's Player of the Year last season and appeared a nailed on certainty for a starting berth at the World Cup, but he was dropped for France's defeat against England and once more finds himself on the bench against Italy.

The coach told French reporters this week that he could not choose between Yachvili and Parra and would now alternate between the two - arguing this gives the squad greater depth and adaptability. That might be fine two or three years out from a World Cup, but not just six months away. The key to international success is stability and consistency of selection, with specific partnerships within the team integral to the fluidity of the whole mass.

Instead, Lièvremont has sown doubts that could well undermine that togetherness, as hinted at this week when Parra gave a spiky post-selection interview. "It's not my problem, it's his," sniffed the Clermont scrum-half when asked about Lièvremont's decision to alternate his No 9s.

"To me they lie equal," confirmed Lièvremont. "Dimitri was a substitute in the last two November Tests and in the first two Six Nations games. He started against England and even though he made a few mistakes, like others, I still trust him," he added.

The France coach was also forced onto the defensive by his decision to continue with Sébastien Chabal as his starting No 8, leaving Biarritz's Imanol Harinordoquy on the bench. Chabal suffered a tortuous match against England but Lièvremont denied "Seabass" deserved to be dropped, and once more said he would alternate starting roles between the two players.

"I want to give him [Chabal] playing time. I watched the game again [against England] and his display didn't seem catastrophic to me. Imanol will start against Wales," explained Lièvremont.

Both players are in their 30s and have over 50 international caps to their names, and Lièvremont has now been in the job for four years, so it seems strange that he hasn't yet figured out their respective roles. Chabal certainly looks a more dynamic player coming off the bench for the last 20 minutes, and last season Harinordoquy was arguably the player of the Six Nations' tournament.

Then there is the question of France's centre partnership, although this time Lièvremont can at least point to injuries and lack of form for his reason for changing. Mathieu Bastareaud, another of last season's heroes, has been dropped from sight due to poor form and even worse conditioning - according to Lièvremont - while earlier in this tournament it appeared that veteran centre Yannick Jauzion was paying the price for his own personal dip. But injury to Perpignan's Maxime Mermoz has opened the door once more to Jauzion, with the Toulouse favourite apparently doing enough against England to merit his continued inclusion. 

Venue: Stadio Flaminio, Rome
Date: Saturday 12 March 2011
KO: 15.30