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France hooker Julien Marchand faces race to make knockout stages


Julien Marchand of France is substituted during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Pool A match between France and New Zealand (Photo by David Ramos - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
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France hooker Julien Marchand is unlikely to play any part in the remainder of France’s World Cup pool stages after picking up a hamstring injury against the All Blacks on Friday.

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The Toulouse No2 began the match with heavy strapping on his left thigh, and could not even make it to half-time at the Stade de France in the World Cup opener before going off with what has been confirmed by coach Laurent Labit as a hamstring injury. Midi Olympique have now reported that the 28-year-old faces four to five weeks out ahead of further tests next week, which would likely rule him out of matches against Uruguay, Namibia and Italy.

Now that France have overcome the biggest hurdle in their group, beating the All Blacks 27-13, Labit said today that Marchand was not even in the coaching team’s plans to feature against Uruguay on Thursday. He said: (Translated on Google) “We are not going to act in haste. In any case, “Juju” (Marchand) was not scheduled for the match against Uruguay. His injury doesn’t change anything in our plans at the moment.”

Marchand joins a growing injury list for Les Bleus, as his fellow Toulouse teammates Romain Ntamack and Cyril Baille are also absent. While Ntamack is out for the entirety of the tournament, Baille, like Marchand, could make a comeback in the latter stages of the tournament, which could be a major boost for Fabien Galthie and his side.

Rugby World Cup

Pool A
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
France
1
1
0
0
4
2
Italy
0
0
0
0
0
3
Namibia
0
0
0
0
0
4
Uruguay
0
0
0
0
0
5
New Zealand
1
0
1
0
0
Pool B
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Ireland
0
0
0
0
0
2
Romania
0
0
0
0
0
3
Scotland
0
0
0
0
0
4
South Africa
0
0
0
0
0
5
Tonga
0
0
0
0
0
Pool C
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Australia
0
0
0
0
0
2
Fiji
0
0
0
0
0
3
Georgia
0
0
0
0
0
4
Portugal
0
0
0
0
0
5
Wales
0
0
0
0
0
Pool D
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Argentina
0
0
0
0
0
2
Chile
0
0
0
0
0
3
England
0
0
0
0
0
4
Japan
0
0
0
0
0
5
Samoa
0
0
0
0
0
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Red and White Dynamight 2 hours ago
'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

“kicked out”. Safas clutch so desperately to their string of victim pearls that excuses are always at the ready to explain away their own poor management decisions. SARU threatened their SANZAR partners for years that ‘because of viewership numbers’ that they were owed a bigger slice of the broadcasting rights pie. Aus and NZ quite rightly told them to FO, SANZAR was an equal partnership. Notwithstanding that each partner brought their own strengths and weaknesses, certainly a winning record completely escaped SA teams as part of their ‘package’. OFS were chopped, and early, despite being 1 of the more attractive SA teams to watch. Still the concentration of SA players from 5 teams to 4 had little discernible improvement on teams performance. In fact, SA teams were - by far - the least successful partner. Only 1 Champion SA club whereas all 3 origin Aus teams won and all 5 NZ teams have won. SA teams had a 22% win rate in NZ - so noone was turning up to watch them - whilst NZ teams had a 50% win rate in SA. When Covid pandemic hit the entire World and, NZ for 1 closed borders in and out, obviously this impacted an International competition and whilst a trans-Tasman lite-Super comp returned eventually, SARU used this opportunity to scream “we’ve been kicked out”. The reality was a temporary solution that would have soon corrected itself. Of course everyone knows the Safas innately clutch desperately to being a victim - ‘noone likes us, we dont care’ - and everyone outside of SA knows that the truth is found elsewhere. After only a few seasons of turning up to matches with teams full of development players in the URC/Champions Cup, those partner nations and their fans are already sick of the moaning and whinging that inherently accompanies all things Sth African. SARU are probably still kidding themselves that they will enter the 6Nations and that they will be “kicked out” of the Rugby Championship. What a bunch of big babies.

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