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Blow for France as Geoffrey Doumayrou ruled out of RWC
By Online Editors
France centre Geoffrey Doumayrou has been ruled out of the World Cup due to an Achilles injury, coach Jacques Brunel has announced.
The 29-year-old will miss Saturday's clash with Scotland in Nice and the World Cup, with his replacement still to be named.
"Geoffrey Doumayrou will miss the World Cup," Brunel said at a press conference reported by L'Equipe.
"He suffers from a fissure injury in the Achilles tendon. The decision was made (on Thursday) morning. We will have to replace him and we will communicate the name during the day."
Brunel expects a tough match against an unpredictable Scotland side. "Scotland are a team that look like us due to their unpredictable side - they are capable of beautiful things as we saw against England during the Six Nations. Against the Scots, you have to prepare for anything.”
Five months after rounding off a disappointing Six Nations with a scrappy win over Italy in Rome, Brunel, who named his World Cup 31 back in June, is giving Test debuts against Scotland to winger Alivereti Raka and back row Francois Cros.
There are only four survivors from their last outing in Rome, full-back Maxime Medard, winger Damian Penaud, scrum-half Antoine Dupont and No8 Greg Alldritt.
FRANCE: Médard; Penaud, Fofana, Fickou, Raka; Lopez, Dupont; Alldritt, Ollivon, Cros, Vahaamahina, Gabrillagues, Slimani, Chat, Poirot (capt). Reps: Mauvaka, Priso, Steniao, Lambey, Picamoles, Serin, Ntamack, Ramos.
- Press Association
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Latest Comments
I think we need to get innovative with the new laws.
Now red cards are only 20 minutes, Razor should send Finau on a head hunting mission to hospitalise their 10 with a shoulder to the chops.
Give the conspiracy theorists a win.
Go to commentsEngland played well enough to win but couldnt score when they needed to and couldnt defend a couple of X-Factor moments from Telea which was ultimately the difference. They needed to hold the ball more and make the AB's make more tackles. Territorially they were good for the first 60. Defending their lead and playing pragmatic rugby in the last 20 was silly. The AB's always had the potential to come back. England still have a long way to go, definite progress would have been shown had they won but it seems they are still stuck where they were shortly after the six nations and their tour to NZ
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