International: France call up Tomas for
injured scrum-half Elissalde
18 November 2008
France head coach Marc Lièvremont has called
up Montpellier scrum-half Julien Tomas for Saturday’s
eagerly anticipated clash with Australia in Paris.
The 23-year-old comes in for Jean-Baptiste
Elissalde, who was stretchered off unconscious during Les
Bleus’ 42-17 weekend win against the Pacific Islands.
Elissalde has been ruled out for 21 days
because the horrific late tackle left him unconscious,
paving the way for Tomas’ call up.
The Montpellier number nine has only cap to
his name – as a replacement against Italy in March – but
gets his chance following the injuries to Morgan Parra and
now Elissalde.
Parra was the original choice but injured his
hand in the 12-6 win against Argentina 10 days ago.
Elissalde’s injury was sustained when Fijian
Napoleoni Nalaga hit him with a shocking late tackle on
Saturday.
The French-based Nalaga, who plays his club
rugby for Clermont, was immediately red carded for the
incident, leaving Elissalde to reflect later: “It came out
of the blue and I don’t really remember what happened, only
that it ended up with me being carried off.”
Nalaga faces a disciplinary hearing on
Tuesday to find out his punishment – possibly a three-match
ban.
Nalaga’s dismissal ended the match as a
contest and France were able to run in five tries as they
took full advantage of their numerical advantage.
Dimitri Szarzewski opened the try-scoring in
Sochaux, with Elissalde’s replacement Sebastien
Tillous-Bordes grabbing the second after an excellent loop
and switch.
Cedric Heymans went over for France’s third,
before Louis Picamoles and Maxime Medard both scored the
final 10 minutes – the latter being his first at
international level.
Man-of-the-Match Heymans said it had been a
functional victory. “Like last week against Argentina we got
the job done, but against Australia next Saturday we will
have to shape up.”
It was a sentiment echoed by Lièvremont,
especially when reflecting on their limp first-half
performance.
“We played like we should not have done, we
lost a lot of balls. We were ill-disciplined and we fell
into the trap of playing champagne rugby,” he said.
Australia
cross the channel buoyed by last weekend’s 28-14 win against
England at Twickenham.
Fly-half Matt Giteau led the Wallaby victory
charge, kicking six penalties and a conversion as the Martin
Johnson’s young side were given a reality check after their
comfortable win against the Pacific Islanders.
Both sides scored one try apiece (Nick Easter
for England and Adam Ashley-Cooper for Australia) but the
result was just reward for Australia’s combative
performance, especially up front where the hosts were tipped
to dominate.
Elsewhere, Ireland battled hard but
still went down 3-22 at home to New Zealand, with
Perpignan-bound Dan Carter kicking two conversions and a
penalty.
The All Blacks maintained their hopes of a
home nations Grand Slam with a first-half penalty try and
later scores from Ma’a Nonu and Brad Thorn.
Next up for Graham Henry’s tourists is a trip
to Cardiff to play Wales on Saturday, coached by
fellow Kiwi Warren Gatland.
The Welsh warmed up for that clash with a
comfortable 34-13 win against Canada, with tries from
Morgan Stoddart and Leigh Halfpenny (2), and two penalty
tries.
Their main concern, however, was an injury to
fly-half James Hook, who left the field after 19 minutes
with a knee problem.
Scotland
came close to upsetting South Africa at Murrayfield,
but they squandered a 10-0 half-time advantage to go down
10-14.
Perpignan’s Nathan Hines opened the scoring
when he went over for Scotland’s first home try in 14
months, but two penalty misses from the usually reliable Dan
Parks proved costly, as did two later misses from Phil
Godman.
A Jaque Fourie try reduced the arrears after
the break with Ruan Pienaar adding three penalties to secure
the narrow win.
Weekend fixtures
France v Australia (Stade de France)
Wales
v New Zealand (Millennium Stadium)
England v South Africa (Twickenham)
Ireland v Argentina (Croke Park)
Scotland v Canada (Aberdeen)
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