Six Nations: Lièvremont rings the changes for Scotland; Fritz cited for eye-gouging

10 February 2009

France have made four changes to their starting XV to face Scotland in Paris at the weekend.

Head coach Marc Lièvremont has reacted to their opening-day defeat in Ireland by dropping winger Julien Malzieu in favour of Toulouse's Cedric Heymans.

The other three changes are all due to injuries, with Fabien Barcella, Nicolas Mas and Romain Millo-Chluski coming in for Lionel Faure, Benoit Lecouls and Sebastien Chabal respectively.

And Lièvremont could be forced into an additional change following confirmation that centre Florian Fritz has been cited for alleged eye gouging against Ireland.

The 25-year-old is due to appear before a disciplinary commission in London on Wednesday after he was accused of “making contact with the eyes or eyes area of an opponent during the game”.

The Toulouse centre, who has only just returned to the national team, could face a lengthy suspension if found guilty.

He was cited by the game’s independent commissioner Matt Bayliss, with the French management team confirming the alleged incident occurred in the 37^th minute when Fritz clashed with Irish back-row forward Stephen Ferris.

Lièvremont has also had to contend with an injury to Fritz’s club teammate Lecouls, with Dax’s 28-year-old prop Renaud Boyoud, who has been capped twice, called up to the squad as cover.

France XV: Clement Poitrenaud; Maxime Medard, Florian Fritz, Yannick Jauzion, Cedric Heymans (all Toulouse); Lionel Beauxis (Stade Francais), Sebastien Tillous-Borde (Castres); Fabien Barcella (Biarritz), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Lionel Nallet (Castres), Romain Millo-Chluski (Toulouse), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz).

Replacements: Renaud Boyoud (Dax), Benjamin Kayser (Leicester), Sebastien Chabal (Sale), Louis Picamoles (Montpellier), Morgan Parra (Bourgoin), Benoit Baby, Julien Malzieu (both Clermont-Auvergne).

Perpignan’s Scottish lock Nathan Hines is desperate to play against France after the 32-year-old was forced to sit out their opening-day home defeat to Wales.

“I’m pretty optimistic. Fingers crossed, I’ll be playing,” he said. “You always want to do your bit, and the most effective way of doing that is to play.”

Hines’ return would be a welcome boost for Frank Hadden’s injury-hit side, with 12 players requiring treatment this week - including Clermont scrum-half Chris Cusiter, who came on as a substitute.

Meanwhile, Brive fly-half Andy Goode has been reflecting on his recall to the England side against Italy, and the early try he scored in the 36-11 victory at Twickenham.

“We all talked all week about having a big first 15 minutes and luckily I just had enough speed to get down and get my hands on the ball. It was a great feeling,” he reflected.

But Goode, like England generally, received mixed reviews and he knows the team must improve for its next game – away to defending champions Wales.

“We did some good things, we did some not-so-good things and we know there is a lot to work on. We need to up all levels of our game. Wales are obviously a hostile bunch. It’s a tough place to play.

“We’ll soak up the atmosphere and hopefully have a big performance. There’s not a chance we’ll be intimidated. We’ll try to impose our game on them,” he said.

Elsewhere, Dan Carter’s immediate future remains unresolved with the New Zealand Rugby Union believed to be keen to oversee the star’s rehabilitation. The issue has been complicated, however, by the fact that Perpignan would still like to use Carter commercially, even if he can’t perform on the pitch, and the All Black fly-half remains in France for the time being.

The Kiwi number 10 has intimated that he may return to Top 14 after the 2011 World Cup, but it could be a different competition by then with a working party now set up to investigate possible improvements.

Among the suggestions currently being considered is a move to broaden the end of season play-offs to include the top six teams. At present the top four clubs meet in semi-final play-offs but this could change so that the top two clubs automatically progress to the semis, with the teams finishing third to sixth then playing off for the right to meet them.

The working party is being led by LNR president Pierre-Yves Revol, and he is also said to investigating the possibility of introducing a salary cap.

A further suggestion to hold all semi-finals in Paris has, unsurprisingly, met with stern resistance.

Talking of Paris, hulking Stade Francais centre Mathieu Bastareaud has signed a contract extension to keep him at the capital club until 2013, while South African fly-half Francois Steyn has quashed rumours he was set to join Racing Metro ’92.

“I did not approach anybody to go and play for them,” he told The Rapport, although he did not rule out a future move.

“I don’t want to go overseas because it will look as I’m running away from my problems. Money is not everything. What’s important to me is to improve in what I’m doing.

“If I’m stagnating I’ll have to make a place, and if that means considering my options rather that staying here, so be it. At 21 I am at a crossroads in my career. The decisions I have to take now are the most difficult of my life and I pray about it a lot.

“I have a few options I’m considering, not just overseas. However, I have not signed any contract,” he said.

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