- France v England, Six Nations, March 20
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Lievremont names unchanged France squad
Scrum.com
March 15, 2010
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France coach Marc Lievremont has asked for more of the same after naming an unchanged squad for his side's Six Nations Grand Slam decider against England at the Stade de France on Saturday.
Les Bleus tore through Italy for a 46-20 victory in Paris on Sunday and will employ the same personnel for the vital visit of Martin Johnson and England. France have not secured a clean sweep since 2004 and will be mindful of over-confidence after England again failed to produce the goods in a 15-15 draw with Scotland at Murrayfield.
Biarritz scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili remains with the squad after being called-up as an injury replacement for Toulouse's Freddie Michalak while Castres' Marc Andreu, Clermont's Julien Malzieu and Brive's Alexis Palisson are retained as options on the wing despite Vincent Clerc's return to fitness.
Defence coach Dave Ellis, who also coaches Guinness Premiership side London Irish, admitted that they had allowed Italy too much room in the closing stages but remains confident that they can get the job done.
"We were quite pleased with how we set up in the game but we sort of fell asleep a little bit in the last 10 minutes of the first half and it took us a while to wake up," he said. "We more or less achieved what we wanted to. We conceded a couple of tries after we had made many changes, for example playing Morgan Parra at No.10. He hasn't got the habit of defending as a 10 from a scrum and he got caught out a couple of times.
"In general, if you had asked us before the game if we would score almost 50 points, we'd have taken it. For an hour of the game, everything went to plan."
France squad to face England:
Forwards: T Domingo (Clermont), C Baiocco (Racing-Metro), N Mas (Perpignan), J Poux (Stade Toulousain), W Servat (Stade Toulousain), D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), S Chabal (Racing-Metro), L Nallet (Racing-Metro), J Pierre (Clermont), J Bonnaire (Clermont), T Dusautoir (Stade Toulousain), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz), A Lapandry (Clermont)
Backs : M Parra (Clermont), F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), M Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Y Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), D Marty (Perpignan), M Andreu (Castres Olympique), J Malzieu (Clermont), A Palisson (Brive), C Poitrenaud (Stade Toulousain), D Yachvili (Biarritz)
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