France now without 10 players for Scotland as more positive tests confirmed
Captain Charles Ollivon is among five new France players who will miss the Guinness Six Nations match against Scotland after testing positive for Covid-19.
The French Rugby Federation has also confirmed that two members of the management team are suspected cases ahead of the Paris game on Sunday.
Head coach Fabien Galthie and star scrum-half Antoine Dupont were already among those in isolation following the coronavirus outbreak in the France camp.
A FFR statement said: “Following RT-PCR tests carried out on Sunday February 21, five new players tested positive for Covid-19, leading to the selection of five new players to prepare for the match against Scotland.
“Cyril Baille (25 selections, Stade Toulousain), Peato Mauvaka (6 selections, Stade Toulousain), Romain Taofifenua (22 selections, RC Toulon), Charles Ollivon (20 selections, RC Toulon) and Brice Dulin (33 caps, Stade Rochelais) have tested positive for COVID-19.
“Two members of the management are considered to be a suspicious case. With a view to isolation, the return home of the players and members of the management concerned is underway.
“The return to collective training is set for Wednesday February 24, subject to the results of tests carried out every 24 hours.”
Gaetan Balot, Thierry Paiva, Cyril Cazeaux, Baptiste Pesenti and Thomas Ramos have been called into a new-look 31-man France squad.
The FRF revealed on Sunday that centre Arthur Vincent and hooker Julien Marchand had tested positive for coronavirus, joining Dupont, Gabin Villiere and Mohamed Haouas in isolation.
Galthie and his assistant William Servat tested positive earlier this week and have been isolating.
France are top of the championship after two rounds of fixtures, having opened their campaign with wins against Italy and Ireland.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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