France
scrum-half Morgan Parra is seeking to cap an
extraordinary season with victory against South Africa in
Cape Town at the weekend.
The
21-year-old has already featured prominently as France
landed the Six Nations Grand Slam, and doubled his delight
by also winning the Top 14 crown in his maiden season with
Clermont Auvergne.
Now he
is relishing the opportunity to front up against the World
Champions on their own turf.
“The key
is to match them in the areas of aggression and
combativeness,” he said. “They are very good at keeping the
ball, and using up time and also gaining the advantage line.
If we are able to make our presence felt in the tackle and
are aggressive in defence, our own game will come into place
little by little,” he told AFP.
France
debutant Wenceslas Lauret has admitted that his
inclusion in Saturday’s starting XV came as a shock.
The
21-year-old Biarritz player was preferred by Marc Lièvremont
to Stade Toulousain’s Louis Picamoles, with his greater
mobility seen as a more potent defensive weapon against the
current World Champions.
“I
wasn’t expecting this,” said Lauret after his selection was
confirmed. “Starting a match against the Springboks – you
can’t do much better that that,” he added.
The
highly-rated youngster said it would be “a huge test” to
face the South Africans in Cape Town but is clearly
relishing the opportunity to stake his claim for a 2011
World Cup berth. “It’s a great baptism,” he added.
Toulon
skipped Joe van Niekerk will not play at the weekend after
injuring a finger in South Africa’s victory over Wales.
France ‘A’, meanwhile, opened their
Churchill Cup campaign with seven tries in their 43-14
win against Uruguay on Wednesday evening.
Despite
the win France coach Fabien Pelous said there was plenty of
ground for improvement from his side ahead of Sunday’s clash
with Canada. “I was not very happy with the performance,”
said the former Toulouse and France captain.
“We
committed a lot of penalties and made a lot of mistakes. We
are happy about winning, but not so happy about the game. We
will have to work hard on some things in order to win
against Canada,” he added.
France
opted to rest several of their major players ahead of their
match against Canada, with the likes of captain Yoann
Maestri and Stade Francais fly-half Lionel Beauxis both on
the bench, while Maxime Medard and Jean-Pierre Perez didn’t
feature at all.
France
'A': Thiery; Audrin, Mazars, Chavancy, Plante; Wisniewski,
Dupuy; Battut, Faure, Nicolas, Villaceca, Suta, Baiocco,
Kayser (capt), Schuster.
Subs: Slimani, Genevois, Maestri, Chouly, Cazenave, Beauxis,
Arias
France’s Under-20 won their second pool match in the
IRB Junior World Championship, beating hosts Argentina
31-23.
Stade
Toulousain centre Rémi Lamerat scored two tries as they
maintained their 100% start, with further tries coming from
scrum-half Alexi Bales and second row Jean Sousa as France
ran amuck in the opening half hour. Fly-half Gilles Bosch
kicked all four conversions and added a late penalty to seal
the win.
France,
who have called up Agen’s Benjamin Petre for the injured
Romain Barthelemy, now take on England in their final pool
match with the two sides currently tied at the head of the
pool.
France
coach Philippe Boher said he was surprised by his side’s
early dominance but was critical of his team then stepping
off the gas to allow Argentina back into the match.
Stade
Francais lock Tom Palmer is set to start for England against
Australia, but both Jonny Wilkinson and James Haskell will
be on the bench as Toby Flood and Tom Croft are preferred in
their place. Former Brive hooker Steve Thompson will also
start in place of the injured Dylan Hartley.
