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French Head Coach Phillipe Saint-André has named his line-up for Saturday’s Quarter Final against New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
The fixture is to be a repeat of the fixture from eight years ago in which the host nation of Rugby World Cup 2007 played and defeated the All Blacks. The hosts were forced to play a Quarter Final on neutral ground after having lost against Argentina in the pool phase and thus finishing second rather than top of the pool.
Eight years on and France is again entering the Quarter Finals phase after failing to come out on top in pool play. France finished second in Pool D, behind winners Ireland. Three wins against Italy, Romania and Canada saw France qualify with a game in hand only to then lose against Ireland without firing too many shots.
In order to make it a repeat from 2007 Saint-André is in need of improved play in terms of both execution and surprise. The game plan on offer under the current French regime has been highly restricted in terms of French flair which has seen the team lacking the ability to play to the standard level and results have been well under par.
The team named for Saturday sees three changes from Ireland last Sunday with Bernard Le Roux, Morgan Parra and Alexandre Dumoulin named. The alterations signal an intent to change little in terms of game plan but tweak the side to have greater ball control.
France
15 Scott Spedding, 14 Noa Nakaitaci, 13 Alexandre Dumoulin, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Brice Dulin, 10 Frédéric Michalak, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Eddy Ben Arous
16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Nicolas Mas, 19 Damien Chouly, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Rory Kockott, 22 Remi Tales, 23 Mathieu Bastareaud
