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France make two changes for U20 Championship final versus England
By Liam Heagney
Defending champions France have made two changes to their starting team to take on England this Friday in Cape Town in the final of the World Rugby U20 Championship. The French, who are chasing a fourth successive world title in a row, swatted aside New Zealand 55-31 in their semi-final last Sunday.
That swashbuckling seven-try performance at the DHL Stadium gained them a perfect revenge for their 26-27 pool loss to the Baby Blacks 10 days earlier in Stellenbosch.
Next on their agenda is revenge on England, whom they lost a Six Nations match to in Pau 31-45 on March 15 which confirmed the English as champions in that tournament.
They have altered one back and one forward in their run-on XV while also switching two of the replacement bench that retains the six/two forwards/backs split it had against the New Zealanders.
The French backline change is on the left wing where the impressive Hoani Bosmorin is marked absent following his 35th-minute exit in the semi-final. His place has been taken by Xan Mousques.
Meanwhile, in the front row, Lino Julien, who started the last day at tighthead, switches to loosehead for the benched Samuel Jean-Christophe and this has allowed Thomas Duchene to come back at No3.
Aside from Jean-Christophe dropping to the replacements at the expense of Lorencio Boyer-Gallardo, the other sub switch is the inclusion of Mathys Belaubre following the promotion of Mousques.
FRANCE (vs England, Friday): 1. Lino Julien, 2. Barnabe Massa, 3. Thomas Duchene, 4. Charly Gambini, 5. Corentin Mezou, 6. Joe Quere Karaba, 7. Geoffrey Malaterre, 8. Mathis Castro Ferreira; 9. Leo Carbonneau, 10. Hugo Reus; 11. Xan Mousques, 12. Robin Taccola, 13. Fabien Brau-Boirie, 14. Maxence Biasotto; 15. Mathis Ferte. Reps: 16. Thomas Lacombre, 17. Samuel Jean-Christophe, 18. Thomas Marceline, 19. Charles Kante Samba, 20. Brent Liufau, 21. Sialevailea Tolofua, 22. Mathys Belaubre, 23. Axel Desperes-Rigou.
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It has taken 15 years to build the participation of rugby both in playing and watching. For South Africa on its own to build a viable international rugby competition in africa will take generations - not decades. New Zealanders seem to resent the fact that SA has doubled the income of the URC since their inclusion. If New Zealand Rugby hadn't insisted on have a disproportionate slice of the pie in Super Rugby, SA might not have fled the coop.
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