France tinker ahead of WC warm-up clash
France coach Marc Lievremont has rung the changes for his team's second World Cup warm-up match against Ireland on Saturday, bringing in 13 new faces including Clermont centre Aurelien Rougerie.
The 30-year-old Rougerie, who has been capped 63 times, is selected for the first time since returning to action after fracturing his ankle in the semi-finals of the Top 14 in early May.
Rougerie will line up alongside Fabrice Estebanez, with Maxime Medard and Alexis Palisson on the wings and Toulouse veteran Cedric Heymans replacing Damien Traille at fullback as the French look to build on last week's 19-12 victory over the Irish.
Lievremont, however, did not pick William Servat because of a lingering knee injury, meaning the Toulouse hooker, along with prop Thomas Domingo, are the sole players not to have played in any of the World Cup warm-up games.
Racing-Metro lock Lionel Nallet takes the captain's armband in the absence of flanker Thierry Dusautoir, while David Skrela and scrum-half Morgan Parra form a new half-back partnership.
Only hooker Dimitri Szarzewski and Palisson are retained from France's winning outing in Bordeaux.
Saturday's match against Ireland at Dublin's Lansdowne Road will be France's second and final warm-up game ahead of the September 9-October 23 Rugby World Cup, with Lievremont revealing his final New Zealand-bound 30-man squad on Sunday.
"It's a warm-up game," said Lievremont. "We need to play these guys. We're on course for the World Cup and it was out of the question to make 15 players sweat blood and tears and not make the others play.
"From the moment we chose to play two warm-up games, and I don't regret that choice, everybody had to play."
As for Servat, Lievremont said the hooker "was not competitive to play a match with an intensity which will be at least the same as that which we saw in Bordeaux".
"He's doing very well, he's training normally but it wouldn't do him a favour. We have two good hookers who played a good match last Saturday."
Team (15-1)
Cedric Heymans (Toulouse); Maxime Medard (Toulouse), Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont), Fabrice Estebanez (Racing-Metro), Alexis Palisson (Brive); David Skrela (Toulouse), Morgan Parra (Clermont); Julien Bonnaire (Clermont), Louis Picamoles (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier); Lionel Nallet (Racing-Metro, capt), Pascal Pape (Stade Francais); Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse)
Replacements: Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), Fabien Barcella (Biarritz), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Raphael Lakafia (Biarritz), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Luc Ducalcon (Castres)
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