France have stuck true to their winning formula by naming the same starting team that defeated Fiji 40-15 last weekend for their clash with Australia.
There were no injury concerns in the French camp and as such coach Philippe Saint-Andre decided to keep faith in his players.
“All the players who started (against Fiji) are at 100 percent and we wanted to go further with this team,” Saint-Andre said.
France picked up their first win of three November Tests last Saturday, boosting their confidence ahead of the game against the Wallabies, a side that put the French to the sword in June when they played in Australia.
“We will have to raise our level against one of the top nations in the world,” Saint-Andre added.
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“We will need to play more smoothly than against Fiji, and to be more accurate.”
For the coach, it is about playing an 80 minute game against Australia in order to get the confidence right ahead of the World Cup next year.
“Defensively, we must be more thorough during 80 minutes. Against Fiji, we missed too many tackles,” he said.
“We will also need to reposition ourselves more quickly [from turn-overs].”
France, however, must also be ready to give more offensively against a team who score a lot of points but also concede a lot, according to Saint-Andre.
Australia beat Wales 33-28 at the Millennium Stadium last Saturday.
Should things get tight, Saint-Andre has retained Sebastien Tillous-Bordes and Camille Lopez at No.9 and No.10 respectively and he is banking on his flyhalf to kick France to victory.
“I think we will need a kicking percentage of about 80 percent,” Saint-Andre added.
France: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Alexandre Dumoulin, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Teddy Thomas, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Damien Chouly, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (Captain), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Alexandre Menini
Replacements from: Xavier Chiocci, Benjamin Kayser, Uini Atonio, Alexandre Flanquart, Sébastien Vahaamahina, Charles Ollivon, Rory Kockott, Rémi Talès, Maxime Mermoz, Mathieu Bastareaud.
Date: Saturday 15 November
Venue: Stade de France, Paris
Kick-Off: 22 SA Time (21:00 French Time, 20:00 GMT, 07:00 Sunday AEST)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Marius Mitrea (Italy)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)
to watch on our side
Alex Dumoulin (center 24y) plays at rival to Stade Français Paris Racing Metro (suburds of the capital with a magnat not very loved as president)
comes from south east of France
Bourgoin a club famous for picking up young and talented lads
almost left racing last year due to a lack of game time
but decided to stay
capable of clean breaks and to make others play around him
high stance with eyes moving around remembers us of Yannick Jauzion
put this year Jamie Roberts on the bench
trivia:
urged last year to slow on physical training and weight gain by racing prep
apparently alex wanted to be another nonu ou bastareaud
for the better he lost 6/7 kilos
leaving to Lyon former french inter Estebanez asked for whom to replace him answered but we have Alex Dumoulin
Alex Whom
a possibility for French commentator to make jokes with his name “from the mill”
Teddy Thomas (wing 20y)
bought from Biarritz to Racing this year
very quick on his feet
acurate in the air
pretty naive in defense was humiliated a couple of times last year against Stade Français
Tends to choose his games
which is a sign of talent in France…
trivia
the hidden son of Serge Blanco current president of Biarritz
roommate from scott spedding during les bleus prep
Uini Atonio (Samoa) prop
One of the foreign legion
Has always declared he wanted to play for France
Huge and difficult to stop on the field
Controversial in his scrumage where he is not consistent
ball handling and high tackle can be a problem for him
but should his scrumage be good… we will see
Trivia
Plays at la Rochelle a courageous club an island of rugby at the west coast of France with a regular 20K attendance alaways somewhere between top14 and second division
Has the city of La rochelle tattoed on his body, and when you know it is an harbour…
Won against ireland and scotland at JWC with Samoa whith the likes of guilford cruden tipuric ebersohn
Takes the advantage of French confortable trains to learn la Marseillaise