FIJIAN-BORN WINGER Alivereti Raka and back row Francois Cros will win their first caps for France on Saturday in their World Cup warm-up match against Scotland.
Veteran Camille Lopez, 30, wins back his place at out-half, preferred as a starter to Romain Ntmack, who will sit on the bench for the match in Nice.
Ahead of the World Cup in Japan, French coach Jacques Brunel has been keeping a watchful eye on Clermont’s gifted Raka, who obtained French citizenship only last December.
Gros, for his part, made a strong case for inclusion at flanker during a stunning past season performance with French champions Toulouse.
He gets his chance with regular back rows Wenceslas Lauret and Yacouba Camara unavailable through injury.
Toulon’s Charles Ollivon also returns at flanker after two years to win his seventh cap after struggling with a shoulder injury.
Lopez, dropped after he criticised the coaching set up in February following the sides 44-8 defeat by England, is back in favour and will link up with Toulouse scrum-half Antoine Dupont.
Cros and Ollivon join Gregory Alldritt at number eight, who is preferred to Louis Picamoles in an experimental back row combination playing together for the first time.
Paul Gabrillagues gets his first start in the second row since June last year while in the front row Camille Chat starts at hooker in place of Guilhem Guirado, the team captain who is injured along with prop Demba Bamba.
France play Scotland again in Edinburgh on 24 August and complete their three-match World Cup preparations against Italy on 30 August at the Stade de France.
Meanwhile, Brunel announced that centre Geoffrey Doumayrou, not named in the side to play Scotland, will miss out on the World Cup because of an Achilles tendon injury after being named in the original squad to go to Japan.
France:
15. Maxime Medard
14. Damian Penaud
13. Gael Fickou
12. Wesley Fofana
11. Alivereti Raka
10. Camille Lopez
9. Antoine Dupont
1. Jefferson Poirot (captain)
2. Camille Chat
3. Rabah Slimani
4. Paul Gabrillagues
5. Sébastien Vahaamahina
6. François Cros
7. Charles Ollivon
8. Grégory Alldritt.
Replacements:
16. Peato Mauvaka
17. Dany Priso
18. Emerick Setiano
19. Felix Lambey
20. Louis Picamoles
21. Baptiste Serin
22. Romain Ntamack
23. Thomas Ramos.
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What if the corner backs are cynically wasting time passing between themselves – will they be getting black cards too? And if Spillane counts too many hand passes on the Sunday game will there be more sanctions?
Maybe the offending player should hop on their bad leg for 2 minutes or something? That would liven it up!!
Or maybe the GAA should let teams do what they do best and commit everything they have to winning and stop pandering to certain commentators.
Leon — I’d have to disagree with you. The amount of cynical fouling, play-acting, and lack of respect for refs and officials has been doing my head in for the past few years. I think the ‘professional foul’ in particular needs to be addressed. If one team needs a goal to win or draw, for instance, the other team pulls them down on the edge of the square and takes one (a yellow card) for the team. It shouldn’t be like that.
Should they let them have a chance to win or draw then?? Nonsense.
I would love to get rid of the play acting and have a lot more respect for officials and i agree with you there. But this is just trying to “improve” (see increase scores) the game to please certain pundits who spout the same rhetoric week in week out with no constructive input.
The Dublin v Donegal semi-final a few years ago was one of the most fascinating games I’d ever seen because of the tactics, intensity and strategy. Not every game needs 60 yd kick passes and 20 points to be entertaining.
@Leon
You seem to be incapable of disagreeing politely.
Quickly turning into a non contact sport ,with all the rule changes & diving.
What about abusing officials, is that to be condoned?
Dreadful suggestion. The problem is the standard of refereeing. Totally different rules on Saturday evening in a club game than you get on Sunday in an intercounty championship game.
Not great for the small clubs who mightn’t have big panels at their disposal either.
If they’re so insistent on bringing in some sort of rule as a solution to the fouling (rather than addressing the real issue of refereeing), why don’t they try the sin bin exactly the way it’s used in rugby. It works very well.
Sin bin would definitely be good. I think this black card is also worth a go though. Notwithstanding refereeing issues; something does have to change in my opinion. If a team gets 7 or 8 points ahead in the second half they can see the game out by faking injury and cynical fouling. It’s crap to watch.
And how many games have you refereed Cormac ?
This years championship should be good craic … FFS. Change the system and bring in the Sin Bin.
It’ll probably be scrapped because of racism!!
And put diving in there too!!
they are right blackcards :-)
Replace the rte studio with the newstalk crew and we can enjoy the coverage, problem solved.
Newstalk presenters really irritating me lately. Way to far up their own ar*es & ill tell you what newstalk guys & gals ( if you read the journal that is ) you are not really that good or funny. I loved the station initially it’s not even on my saved stations in my car anymore.
Sin bin anyone? Works in rugby and ice hockey. Forget this substituting for another player. That is not a punishment
You’ll need a degree to officiate games and the public wont have a clue. Tripping abuse and cynical fouls red card. Soccer and Gaa need to catch up,manly the players
Sin bin is the only logical solution. This black card can’t work at grass roots for obvious reasons.. They seem to be determined to break What’s not broke..
On a related topic….used to be a great rule in ice hockey….not sure if it still applies. When two players go at each other….the third man in gets red carded. Result is that two guys slug away until seperated by officials. No mass brawls. Would def be worth a shot in GAA.
What about the team who gets a black card and has no substitute? Joke of a rule
Please don’t play the black card
There may be trouble ahead with all the confusion and its all of their own making. Black cards, yellow cards and red cards, why don’t they use a deck of cards cos it sounds like a game of chance. Looks as though the GAA are just putting feelers out to see the reaction from managers. Too much spin from FRC and co. They may dig a hole and bury their report.
I can see it being an absolute nonsense but great for the media of course.
Why don’t they ban them from using their hands, make the pitch smaller and get rid of those sticks on top of the cross bar. Then you’d have a sport
There are too many cynical and violent tackles. I think perhaps stricter refs rather than a new card, would do it.
Just leave the game alone ! Had one on the best inter county championships last fee years last year