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French squad forced to make another injury-enforced front row change
By Online Editors
France have lost another player in the run-up to Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations opener at home to England.
Earlier this week, Racing 92’s Teddy Baubigny replaced club colleague Camille Chat after the experienced hooker suffered a calf injury.
Now, Castres prop Wilfrid Hounkpatin has left the squad with a rib injury and will be replaced by La Rochelle’s Uini Atonio who has not played for France since the opening round defeat to Wales in February 2019.
It’s a disappointing end to what has initially been a good week for Hounkpatin, the uncapped 28-year-old, as he extended his club contract on Wednesday through to 2023.
Hounkpatin had been part of the 42-strong squad that is preparing for the Six Nations under new coach Fabien Galthie.
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Latest Comments
Disagree.
The challenge for the All Blacks now that they have 7 of 8 starting forwards locked in and all but one bench forward (only one loose forward and bench loosie to settle on) is to sort out the starting backline as only 9 Roigard, 12 J. Barrett, 11 Clarke and 15 Jordan had good to outstanding seasons in 2024. All the other backs were inconsistent or poor and question marks going into 2025.
Go to commentshe should not be playing 12. He should be playing 10 and team managers should stop playing players out of position to accommodate libbok.
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