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France hand keys to young fly-half, Cyrielle Banet returns to face England
By Martyn Thomas
France fly-half Lina Tuy will make her first Test start in Gloucester on Saturday as part of a new-look half-back partnership for the match against England.
Tuy, who will celebrate her 20th birthday on Tuesday, made three appearances as a replacement during the Guinness Women’s Six Nations earlier this year.
She has been handed the number 10 jersey for the Kingsholm Crunch, however, and will line up alongside scrum-half Alexandra Chambon, whose previous test start came against Australia last October.
Elsewhere in the backline there is a return from injury for prolific winger Cyrielle Banet, while Marine Menager is selected at inside centre and Chloé Jacquet comes in at full-back.
Up front, loose-head prop Yllana Brosseau starts in place of the injured Annaëlle Deshaye and Emeline Gros comes in for former captain Gaëlle Hermet.
Coaches Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz have selected a six-two split on the bench, meanwhile, with experienced duo Pauline Bourdon-Sansus and Gabrielle Vernier providing back cover.
The match, which is available to stream live and for free in France on RugbyPass TV, with French commentary, gives the teams an opportunity to fine tune their preparation for WXV 1, which starts in Canada later this month.
France have suffered 13 successive defeats to England, Les Bleues' last victory in the fixture coming in a Grand Slam decider in Grenoble in March 2018.
France team to play England
15. Chloé Jacquet
14. Cyrielle Banet
13. Nassira Konde
12. Marine Menager
11. Emilie Boulard
10. Lina Tuy
9. Alexandra Chambon
1. Yllana Brosseau
2. Agathe Sochat
3. Assia Khalfaoui
4. Manaé Feleu (captain)
5. Madoussou Fall
6. Charlotte Escudero
7. Emeline Gros
8. Romaine Menager
Replacements
16. Manon Bigot
17. Ambre Mwayembe
18. Rose Bernadou
19. Hina Ikahehegi
20. Séraphine Okemba
21. Téani Feleu
22. Pauline Bourdon-Sansus
23. Gabrielle Vernier
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Latest Comments
I like it.
Would have had Reuben at 23 if he wasn’t injured.
They need to make up their mind about will Jordan, I think he rips up at 14 so leave him there, develop Reuben Love at 15.
Interesting to see Blackadder left out. Still recovering from injury is all I can think of.
Can’t wait to see Tosi in action, hope he makes a monsters effort in all areas.
Go to commentsI'm a bit sad John. I thought we were going to get a nice statistical table on the relative physicality of the two packs or something.
There is a big misconception about New Zealand rugby's lack of size. They do, along with Australia, and the homelands of Pacifika people, have a lot of big rugby players, they just haven't been favoured by the All Blacks, or indeed with the likes of Will Skelton, neither NSW or the Wallabies, either.
A quick jump on all.rugby gives a quick look at last weeks teams
SA -------------------------- NZ
963 kg (120.38 kg) --- Pack weight (average) --- 939 kg (117.38 kg)
31 ans - --- Forwards average age ---- 28 ans
29 ans --- Backs average age --- 28 ans
ARG ------------------------ AUS
922 kg (115.25 kg) --- Pack weight (average) ---- 925 kg (115.63 kg)
28 ans ---- Forwards average age --- 25 ans
26 ans ---- Backs average age --- 26 ans
As you can see here, there might be a trend to say that the Wallabies will get more powerful with age, but you wouldn't think one would suggest a physical edge over the Abs at this point. Indeed, their edge comes from a completely different concept, dynamism. In players like Tupou, Bell, some say Frost, Rob, they have players that can edge their opposites. Taylor and Sami (Aumua hopefully) at hooker, Barrett on a good day, and Ardie (and his heir apparent) can provide it for the All Blacks, but Australia's game should definitely be about tempo and speed of play at their young age LSL seems to be thought of as perhaps a strong foil to that when needed, but I would honestly rate him below Patrick.
So I tihnk the pack is much closer to how you view the backline, so makes for a cohesive plan if Joe can get it right. I think the most telling stat for these two teams (haven't checked this mornigns announcement yet) would be in test caps, and it would be stark if Slipper was told he was no longer needed.
Use that youthful exuberance and try and get them confident. That Argentine side is a great, they put a record score on NZ in not as favourable conditions as well. Theyve just got to take that one on the chin, and like SBW says, come out swining for round 2. Remembering that no matter what, in this sport, this game, theyre going to still be standing by round 12 when the Lions come. There should be no fear here.
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