Lievremont sticks to his young guns

Rational thinking might appear to have gone out of the Marcoussis windows when France named a side to face England in Paris on Saturday without a specialist place-kicker and with an 8-9-10 axis that totals less than 100 minutes of international rugby between them, but there was method in the apparent suicidal urge as les Bleus' coach, Marc Lievremont, told it yesterday.

"We will take our playing philosophy to its logical conclusion," said the former France flanker. The rationale is that there is no sense in giving old lags game time to ensure temporary security at the expense of youthful dynamism.

Thus, Dimitri Yachvili, called in to replace the injured Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, remains on the bench while Morgan Parra, all of 19 and with half an hour's rugby at this level to his credit, will start instead at scrumhalf.

Although Lievremont could have pointed out that Parra's England counterpart Richard Wigglesworth is hardly an international veteran, his argument was that Parra had been with France since the start of their campaign and knew the calls, whereas Yachvili had only arrived on Monday.

Outside the Bourgoin scrumhalf is Francois Trinh-Duc, who looked assured when he started against Scotland on the opening weekend and is preferred to David Skrela.

Trinh-Duc's Montpellier clubmate Louis Picamoles, a replacement against Ireland, starts at number eight.

Asked whether the players in these three crucial positions might be too callow to face the World Cup runners-up, the France coach replied, only half in jest, that they were older and more experienced than a few weeks ago; their selection was not a gamble. "They have, so far, fulfilled our expectations and now we are counting on them to bring enthusiasm and daring."

Trinh-Duc insisted he was not in the least intimidated by the prospect of facing Jonny Wilkinson, who has 64 more caps and 1,006 more international points. "That just gives the match extra savour. I can't wait."

With both the recognised kickers, Yachvili and Skrela, on the bench, the centre Damien Traille will take on the task, as he did on occasion in France's first two matches.

"I know people will say it's scandalous that we aren't starting with a specialist," said Lievremont, "but it's about confidence, and Damien has plenty of that at the moment".

Not surprisingly given the way they have clicked so far, France's backs remain unchanged, and perversely an injury yesterday to the lock Romain Millo-Chluski gives the pack a more seasoned look as Pascal Pape returns.

With Jean-Baptiste Poux and Jerome Thion back in the reckoning, there are five senior players on the bench and Lievremont confirmed the same game plan as against Scotland - youthful enthusiasm to do early damage, older, cooler heads to come on later.

© 2008 Guardian Service

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times