International: France add Skrela and Traille; Carter aims
for ‘Slam’
03 November 2008
France have called up
Toulouse fly-half David Skrela for Saturday’s match against
Argentina after Francois Trinh-Duc and Lionel Beauxis were
both ruled out by injury.
Trinh-Duc suffered a
hamstring strain during Montpellier’s 31-26 win at Castres,
while Beauxis injured his groin in Stade Francais’ 22-6
defeat by Clermont.
It is a particular blow
for Beauxis, who has been in excellent form this season,
because he had never played for France under new coach Marc
Lièvremont.
Skrela now gets the chance
to add to his 15 caps, while Lièvremont has also called up
Biarritz star Damien Traille to ensure he has sufficient
cover.
Traille, who is now the
most experienced player in the squad with 64 caps, was part
of the French side that lost twice to Argentina in last
year’s Rugby World Cup.
The South Americans have
become something of a bogey team for France of late, and
they will hardly be overjoyed at news that former Stade
Francais coach Fabien Galthie has now joined the Pumas as a
‘technical assistant’.
Meanwhile, New Zealand fly half Dan Carter,
who will be joining Perpignan next month, reckons the All
Blacks have a chance of a historic ‘Grand Slam’ during their
November internationals.
Carter, who played at
centre before reverting to his favoured No 10 position in
Saturday’s 19-14 victory against Australia in Hong Kong,
believes New Zealand have what it takes to beat England,
Scotland, Wales and Ireland over the coming weeks.
“It’s always a tough
challenge doing the Grand Slam. Often you have to grind out
wins. We’ve done it on a couple of occasions now and it’s
good to know we’ve got that character within the side,” he
said.
“It goes a long way. When
you’re not playing as well as you would like, the character
of this team is really rewarding.”
Carter, who was an
integral part of the 2005 All Blacks that achieved the Grand
Slam, admitted there was still work to be done despite the
Bledisloe Cup victory.
“We’re not playing as well
as we can and we had to rely on that real grit to get
ourselves through the second half.
“We’ll go away and think
hard on that. I think we’re a lot better side that that,
we’ve got some great skills but we’re not using as many
touches as we’d like to. Hopefully things can improve from
here.”
The only blot on the All
Blacks weekend was the loss of hooker Andrew Hore with an
ankle injury.
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