France make five changes to face Ireland

RUGBY/Six Nations News round-up:France have made a surprising, five changes to the team that hammered Italy 39-3 for Sunday's historic Six Nations Championship encounter with Ireland at Croke Park. Prior to the beginning of the tournament, French coach Bernard Laporte had intimated he would use the Six Nations as a proving ground to fine tune his squad ahead of the upcoming World Cup later in the year.

Some suggested he was providing himself with a little verbal leeway should a disappointing November Test series seep into France's defence of their Six Nations title.

Having thumped a hapless Italy - Pierre Berbizier's charges were tipped to cause the French problems - Laporte has remained true to his word, opting for swingeing changes.

Of the five alterations, three come in the pack with Sylvain Marconnet given a chance ahead of Olivier Milloud at loosehead prop. Jerome Thion is nursing a minor ankle problem but the fact he is named on the bench suggests Pascal Pape's elevation to the starting team was in the pipeline anyway. The 15-times capped Pape will join his Castres team-mate Lionel Nallet in the secondrow. He is tough, abrasive presence.

The strength in depth of French backrow forwards is emphasised by the promotion to the team of Biarritz's Imanol Harinordoquy with the excellent Julien Bonnaire dropping to the replacements. There is a flexibility to the new unit with Harinordoquy listed to start at openside flanker with two-try hero from Rome, Sale's Sebastien Chabal starting at number eight.

Laporte has elected to retain the fledgling half-back partnership of Pierre Mignoni and David Skrela but there are two changes to the three-quarter line. A leg injury to Toulouse centre Florian Fritz, sustained the last day, guaranteed a call up for 24-year-old Perpignan centre David Marty, who was not in the squad for the Rome match.

He will win his ninth cap on Sunday while the other alteration enables one Toulouse wing to replace another with Vincent Clerc promoted and Cedric Heymans heading in the opposite direction.

There is one further alteration to the match 22 with Sale's Sebastien Bruno replacing Dimitri Szarzewski of Stade Francais. The latter sustained an injury to his shoulder which has necessitated an operation but his time on the field against Italy was not a productive one at the lineouts after being introduced for captain Raphael Ibanez. France lost six lineouts against Italy, five in the second half and it's certainly an area Ireland will look to attack as Bruno isn't noted for his accuracy either.

Laporte confirmed he had deliberately made so many changes to provoke competition with his squad. He explained: "The players who are going to start the match on Sunday will be very eager to show they are as good as the ones who won in Rome last Saturday.

"They know they are in competition with each other."

The French coach outlined that he was looking forward to playing at Croke Park, becoming the first rugby side to do so. "It will be a hellish game. The games against Ireland are always tough but this one will be played in a very special environment, in a stadium which is a temple of Gaelic sports where rugby players didn't have the right to play.

"Ireland play good rugby and they will certainly will be eager to beat us because the last four times we played, they lost, and because we'll face each other in the World Cup pool phase."

Meanwhile, Ireland's injury situation will come into clearer focus towards the weekend.

Coach Eddie O'Sullivan will announce his team at lunch-time today but it's likely to have several vacancies. Captain Brian O'Driscoll's hamstring injury is not thought to be as bad as first feared but he must be rated as having only a 50/50 chance of playing.

A hairline fracture to a bone in his hand means Peter Stringer's availability won't be known until Friday but there was better news about Denis Leamy and Gordon D'Arcy both of whom are expected to be available for selection. O'Sullivan will also announce an Ireland A team to play the English Saxons on Friday night at Ravenhill.

In the context of a World Cup year there will be a huge emphasis placed on the composition of that team to ascertain the pecking order outside of the senior squad.Brian O'Driscoll has confirmed his chances of being fit to lead Ireland in an historic first international Test match at Croke Park remain 50/50. Speaking in his Life of Brian diary, on the O2 i-mode site, the Irish captain pointed out he is desperate to recover in time.

"The hamstring feels okay but I genuinely won't know whether I'll be able to play until Saturday. It's a question of working hard on the rehabilitation alongside Brian Greene and Cameron (Steele) in the hope of giving myself every chance. I felt a twinge when I accelerated sharply to catch Rog (Ronan O'Gara) after he made that break. It was a little tweak of some sort and the guys were on to examine it straight away. They did a power and strength test at the time on the pitch and it was good. I just had to try and contain whatever I had done.

"I knew I couldn't go all out. When we got that try to go 10 points ahead it was time to get off and start the rehabilitation. I am in the best hands and as things stand I suppose it is a 50/50 chance of being able to play. As the week goes on, I'll be in a better position to judge. I desperately want to play but I have to be fair to the team."