France have named an unchanged squad to face Ireland at the Stade de France on Saturday.
France blooded four debutants in the side that convincingly beat Scotland 27-6 at Murrayfield , while two others made their first appearances in the Six Nations. Marc Lievremont, the French coach, named the same 22 players for Ireland’s visit, as the French Rugby Federation said the performance was “promising” in a short statement today.
Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, the scrum-half, is named in the squad despite coming off after suffering a knock to the ankle in the seond half of the Scotland game.
Elissalde, the Toulouse No.9, said there is still room for further improvement.
“The basis of our game was effective, but there was quite a lot of waste, especially in the kicking”, he said. Ellisalde missed two penalties himself.
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He added: “We also lost a scrum and a line-out. We mustn’t think we can to throw the ball every time we’re at the 22-metre line. You have to lift your head.”
France squad
Forwards: J Brugnaut (Dax), L Faure (Sale), N Mas (Perpignan), W Servat (Toulouse), D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), L Jacquet (Clermont-Auvergne), L Nallet (Castres), A Mela (Albi), J Bonnaire (Clermont-Auvergne), T Dusautoir (Toulouse), F Ouedraogo (Montpellier), E Vermeulen (Clermont-Auvergne).<QA1>
Backs: J-B Elissalde (Toulouse), M Parra (Bourgoin), F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), D Skrela (Stade Francais), D Marty (Perpignan), D Traille (Biarritz), V Clerc (Toulouse), J Malzieu (Clermont-Auvergne), C Heymans (Toulouse), A Rougerie(Clermont-Auvergne).