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Monday, 27 February 2012

France Lose Maxime Medard


France full-back Maxime Medard has been ruled out of Sunday's Six Nations clash against Ireland because of injury.

Medard sustained a knee injury in Sunday's 23-17 win over Scotland so his Toulouse team-mate Clement Poitrenaud has been drafted into the French squad.

Poitrenaud won the last of his 44 caps in last year's Six Nations defeat by England at Twickenham.

The remainder of the squad is unchanged for the Ireland match, which was originally scheduled for 11 February.

Medard scored a try in the Murrayfield game before being forced to hobble off.

Coach Philippe Saint-Andre will announce his starting line-up on Wednesday but Poitrenaud looks likely to slot in at full-back.

"We don't have a lot of full-backs in the squad. We chose Clement Poitrenaud even though we had one or two other options," said Saint-Andre on Monday.

"We will leave naming the team until Wednesday instead of Tuesday to see how the players recover from their efforts (against Scotland).

"We also want to take another look at our next opponents as Ireland have also played another game having defeated Italy (on Saturday)."

France squad
Forwards: David Attoub, Vincent Debaty, Nicolas Mas, Jean-Baptiste Poux, William Servat, Dimitri Szarzewski, Pascal Pape, Yoann Maestri, Lionel Nallet, Julien Bonnaire, Thierry Dusautoir (captain), Louis Picamoles, Imanol Harinordoquy
Backs: Morgan Parra, Julien Dupuy, François Trinh-Duc, Lionel Beauxis, Aurelien Rougerie, Maxime Mermoz, Wesley Fofana, Vincent Clerc, Julien Malzieu, Clément Poitrenaud