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France put faith in Serin for England clash
By Peter Thompson
Baptiste Serin has been preferred to Maxime Machenaud in France's starting line-up to face England in the Six Nations on Saturday and Gael Fickou also comes into the side.
Bordeaux Begles scrum-half Serin, 22, will make only his third start for Les Bleus against the defending champions, with the experienced Machenaud named among the replacements along with the versatile Jean-Marc Doussain.
Serin will be expected to get injury-hit France ticking at Twickenham along with Camille Lopez, who starts at fly-half.
There is no place in the squad for Mathieu Bastareaud after head coach Guy Noves went with the flair of Fickou as a replacement for Wesley Fofana, who will play no part in the tournament after rupturing his Achilles.
Uncapped Clermont Auvergne lock Arthur Iturria is set to make his debut from the bench.
France team: Scott Spedding, Noa Nakaitaci, Gael Fickou, Remi Lamerat, Virimi Vakatawa, Camille Lopez, Baptiste Serin; Cyril Baille, Guilhem Guirado (captain), Uini Atonio, Sebastien Vahaamahina, Yoann Maestri, Damien Chouly, Kevin Gourdon, Louis Picamoles.
Replacements: Clement Maynadier, Xavier Chiocci, Rabah Slimani, Arthur Iturria, Loann Goujon, Maxime Machenaud, Yoann Huget, Jean-Marc Doussain.
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Latest Comments
Apart from the scrum a really sloppy AB performance. Through successive coaching regimes they just don't seem to be able to cope with motivated and physically aggressive opposition, getting knocked off the ball and scrambling around with back foot ball. A lack of proper 10 means we are then not turning the opposition around and pinning them in their corners.
Go to commentsSheesh Goldie, South Africa actually lost two tests, IRE & ARG. Everyone got beaten at least twice this year so I'm not sure why the Boks are the "standard". I'd hate the ABs to follow their example. Our standard should be ABs (version 2015).
But I agree, the ABs are definitely in the B range. For me, it's a B+, the + mainly reflecting the lifting of the teams baseline from wobbly to now comfortably being able to win ugly.
Bring on 2025.
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