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France name team for Fiji

By Alex Fisher
France prop Rabah Slimani

Benjamin Fall and Rabah Slimani have been recalled to France’s starting XV for this weekend’s clash with Fiji in Paris.

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France ended their five-game losing run against Argentina last weekend and the majority of that team retain their places in Jacques Brunel’s side.

Two-try hero Teddy Thomas starts on the right wing, while scrum-half Baptiste Serin will look to repeat his accuracy from the tee after kicking 13 points against the Pumas.

Fall comes into the backline in place of Maxime Medard, while Slimani – who wins his 50th cap – slots in at tighthead prop alongside captain Guilhem Guirado and Jefferson Poirot.

Brunel also makes changes in the replacements with Julien Marchard and Demba Bamba set to make their Test debuts, the duo joined by Felix Lambey, Kelian Galletier and Geoffrey Doumayrou on the bench.

France: Benjamin Fall, Teddy Thomas, Mathieu Bastareaud, Gael Fickou, Yoann Huget, Camille Lopez, Baptiste Serin; Jefferson Poirot, Guilhem Guirado, Rabah Slimani, Sebastien Vahaamahina, Yoan Maestri, Wenceslas Lauret, Arthur Iturria, Louis Picamoles

Replacements: Julien Marchand, Dany Priso, Demba Bamba, Felix Lambey, Kelian Galletier, Antoine Dupont, Anthony Belleau, Geoffrey Doumayrou

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Nickers 1 hour ago
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ bench woes

Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.


The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.


When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.


Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.

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