The French squad for New Zealand has just been announced, and the only surprise was the omission of Jauzion and Sebastien Chabal. Although he had little effect as a player in recent internationals we all thought the Caveman would be on the team for his personality and sponsor value alone, but it’s not to be.
The next big surprise would be if les tricolores were to do well against the All Blacks in their pool game, but few people in France think there’s much hope of that.
France looked pretty ordinary in the Six Nations and abyssmal against the Wallabies, and this year the old cliché “You never know which French team will turn up” is not going to wash, because we do know which team will turn up in New Zealand and, alas, it won’t be near good enough.
The All Blacks can’t wait to exact some revenge for past Rugby World Cup embarrassments at the hands of the Gauls, and they’ve got the team to do it. I expect them to run up three tries to none then coast for the rest of the game.
If England get past Argentina in Dunedin, will France beat them in the quarters? Perhaps. But if they do they’ll face the Springboks and it will be Bonne nuit, infirmier.
Here’s the squad. It’s doubtful that Rougerie will make it back from a bad injury, and Domingo has a chronic knee.
Hookers: William Servat (Toulouse), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Français)
Props: Fabien Barcella (Biarritz), Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse), , Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Sylvain Marconnet (Biarritz)
Locks: Pascal Papé (Stade Français), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Romain Millo-Chluski (Toulouse), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Métro 92)
Loose forwards: Julien Bonnaire (Clermont), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse/Cap), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Raphaël Lakafia (Biarritz), Louis Picamoles (Toulouse)
Scrum-halves: Morgan Parra (Clermont), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz)
Fly-halves: David Skrela (Toulouse), François Trinh-Duc (Montpellier)
Centres: Fabrice Estebanez (Brive), Maxime Mermoz (Perpignan), David Marty (Perpignan), Aurélien Rougerie (Clermont)
Wings/full-backs: Maxime Médard (Toulouse), Alexis Palisson (Brive), Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Yoann Huget (Bayonne), Cédric Heymans (Toulouse), Damien Traille (Biarritz)
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