Six Nations:
Nervous French seek gladiator spirit for Roman redemption
against Italy
20 March 2009
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Familiar foe: Stade Francais'
Italian captain Sergio Parisse
Photo: Michael Paler |
With no
Top 14 action this weekend the attention turns firmly on the
national team as France aim to cast off ‘Les Bleus’ with
victory in their final RBS Six Nations game, away to Italy.
Italy
has never beaten France in the Six Nations and history
suggests a comfortable win for Marc Lièvremont's beleaguered
team, but which France will turn up? Will it be ‘Rome
Redemption’ or ‘Lievremont’s Latin Nightmare’?
Defeat
(or even a scrappy win) would surely heighten calls for a
change of team management, but France’s top brass insist
that Lièvremont & Co still have their backing, and that the
bigger picture (i.e. building a team for the 2011 World Cup)
remains the focus.
That’s
all well and dandy, in theory, but the public and media are
growing increasingly weary of France’s infuriating
inconsistency.
The
pulsating and vibrant
21-16 home win against Wales
showed French rugby at its best – with pace, power and
precision to the fore – but
the apathetic showing at Twickenham
last week – particularly in an embarrassingly one-sided
first half – completely undermined their previous good work.
It
wasn’t just that the better team beat France on the day –
they were humiliated.
Perhaps
the most galling aspect of the 34-10 defeat was the apparent
lack of pride as England waltzed in four first-half tries.
Heads went down as soon as Mark Cueto ran in for his 69th-second
try and it wasn’t until a raft of second-half substitutions
that Les Bleus began to show anything resembling fight.
That
reflected badly on everyone – from the coaching team through
to the captain (Lionel Nallet) and the individual players on
show.
Lièvremont has
resisted the temptation to make
wholesale changes – although the Sebastien Chabal
as flanker experiment has been rightly binned with Julien
Bonnaire getting his first start in a year – with largely
the same team offered a chance to make some sort of amends
against Italy in Rome on Saturday.
Nick
Mallett’s mob may have failed to win yet in this
Championship but they came mighty close against Wales last
week – losing 20-15 after a late Tom Shanklin try -and will
be desperate for a victory that could see them avoid the
tournament’s wooden spoon.
They
also have the added incentive of featuring several
high-class internationals that ply their club trade in
France, with the likes of Sergio Parisse and the Bergamasco
brothers sure to be passing on plenty of inside information.
The
message coming out of the Italian camp all week has been one
of caution – warning against a French backlash following
their Twickenham debacle – but behind closed doors Mallet
must be encouraging his charges to believe victory is
possible.
Rome’s
Stadio Flaminio can be a daunting place to play, especially
when the Azurri get their act together, and Mallett will be
reminding his troops of how much pressure is now building on
the French team.
Flanker Mauro Bergamasco warned that France’s
re-jigged team will be “more dynamic in the back row and
will have more experience in the backs”, but it will also
carry the not inconsiderable ghosts of Twickenham.
French
winger Cedric Heymans confirmed as much when he admitted: “I
have experienced bitter defeats, like against South Africa
but, in terms of a nightmare, last Sunday at Twickenham was
definitely the worst. We realise we have been ridiculed,” he
said.
On paper
the France team looks certain to overpower and outflank
their Italian hosts – they have averaged 45 points against
Italy in Rome in previous Six Nations encounters - but that
will mean nothing if Italy make a strong start and France
make early errors. Then the match will become a mental fight
as much as anything, with confidence and self-belief
becoming determining factors.
Have the
French got the strength of will to overcome that, or has the
English roasting left deeper scars than Lièvremont is
prepared to admit?
Team details
Italy:
15 Andrea Marcato, 14 Giulio Rubini, 13
Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Matteo Pratichetti,
10 Luke McLean, 9 Paul Griffen, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7
Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4
Santiago Dellape, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1
Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements:
16 Franco Sbaraglini, 17
Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 19 Josh
Sole, 20 Pablo Canavosio, 21 Luciano Orquera, 22 Roberto
Quartaroli.
France:
15 Damien Traille, 14 Maxime Medard, 13 Florian Fritz, 12
Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cedric Heymans, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9
Morgan Parra, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6
Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Sebastien Chabal, 4 Lionel Nallet (c),
3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Fabien
Barcella.
Replacements:
16 William Servat, 17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Jerome Thion, 19
Louis Picamoles, 20 Frederic Michalak, 21 Mathieu
Bastareaud, 22 Julien Malzieu.
Venue:
Stadio Flaminio
Kick-off:
14.15
Referee:
Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Touch judges:
Stuart Dickinson
(Australia), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Television match official:
Graham Hughes (England)
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