Chabal to start for France

Eurosport - Wed, 17 Jun 06:57:00 2009

Sebastien Chabal has been named by France coach Marc Lievremont to face New Zealand in the second Test in Wellington on Saturday.

New Zealand's Kieran Read, right, runs around Frances Sebastien Chabal in the International first rugby test at Carisbrook, Dunedin
AP - 0

Chabal, who came on as a replacement in France's 27-22 first Test victory at Carisbrook last Saturday, replaces Pascal Pape at lock and was one of three changes to the starting side made by Lievremont.

Centre Maxime Mermoz replaces Mathieu Bastareaud, while Nicholas Mas - a late arrival after his Perpignan side won the French club final - will start at tighthead prop in place of Sylvain Marconnet.

Bastareaud moves to the replacements' bench while Marconnet and Pape have dropped out of the 22-man squad.

"We have kept most of the team together but we realise that we need to bring some fresh legs in," Lievremont said.

Chabal, who has openly taunted the All Blacks before the kick-off in each of their last two Tests, said his side were aiming to repeat last week's victory and become the second French side to win a series in New Zealand.

The 1994 team won the two-match series 2-0.

Saturday's victory in Dunedin was just France's fourth win against the All Blacks in New Zealand in 21 Tests.

"We want to repeat what we did last week ... we want to win," Chabal told the Fairfax Digital website.

"But we have to concentrate on our game and not the All Blacks' game. I think that's why we won last Saturday.

"I think we were much more physical than them and then they started to put their head down.

"I think that was the key to us winning ... but we know the game will be much more physical than last week."

Team: 15-Maxime Medard, 14-Vincent Clerc, 13-Maxime Mermoz, 12-Damien Traille, 11-Cedric Heymans, 10-Francois Trinh-Duc, 9-Julien Dupuy; 8-Louis Picamoles, 7-Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6-Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5-Romain Millo-Chluski, 4-Sebastien Chabal, 3-Nicolas Mas, 2-William Servat, 1-Fabien Barcella.

Replacements: 16-Dimitri Szarzewski, 17-Thomas Domingo, 18-Remy Martin, 19-Damien Chouly, 20-Dimitri Yachvili, 21-Yannick Jauzion, 22-Mathieu Bastareaud.

Reuters

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