Showing posts with label Frédéric Michalak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frédéric Michalak. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Bastareaud Out of France Squad


Mathieu Bastareaud has been left out of the 31-man France Six Nations squad.

The 27-year-old Toulon centre, who has 39 caps, had been omitted from two previous informal gatherings organised by new coach Guy Noves.

"We want to build a team who will be able to improve a lot and not taking players who would not be with us in two or three years," Noves said.

France start their Six Nations campaign against Italy in Paris on 6 February with Guilhem Guirado their new captain.

They lost 62-13 to New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup in October.

Ireland won the Six Nations in 2015 on eight points, with France finishing fourth on four points.

France squad for Six Nations
Forwards
Uini Atonio, Eddy Ben Arous, Antoine Burban, Yacouba Camara, Camille Chat, Damien Chouly, Alessandre Flanquart, Kevin Gourdon, Guilhem Guirado (captain), Paul Jedrasiak, Wenceslas Lauret, Yoann Maestri, Louis Picamoles, Jefferson Poirot, Rabah Slimani, Sebastien Vahaamahina

Backs
ebastien Bezy, Hugo Bonneval, Jonathan Danty, Jean-Marc Doussain, Alexandre Dumoulin, Benjamin Fall, Gael Fickou, Wesley Fofana, Remi Lamerat, Maxime Machenaud, Maxime Medard, Morgan Parra, Jules Plisson, Scott Spedding, Virimi Vakatawa

Monday, 16 November 2015

Boudjellal Suggests 6 Nations Bath


Mourad Boudjellal, the president of Toulon, has suggested the postponed European Rugby Champions Cup game against Bath could take place during the Six Nations.

All Champions Cup and Challenge Cup matches that were due to be played in France over the weekend were postponed following the Paris attacks.

The knockout stages of the Champions Cup are not set to take place until early April while the Six Nations kicks off on Feb 6.

Boudjellal has concede that any rearrangement will prove complicated, highlighting the difficulty in potentially releasing international players to play for their clubs.

"Playing on Wednesday isn't possible," he told French sports daily L'Equipe.

"I can only see one solution... It would mean that the (national team) coaches would have to accept not being able to call up international players of Bath or Toulon in order for us to be able to play the match during a matchday of the Six Nations."

In an exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport, Bruce Craig, the chairman of Bath, believes the match will never be played.

Craig, who is on the European Professional Club Rugby board, believes that finding a slot for Bath's game will prove impossible because of the congestion to the English calendar caused by the Rugby World Cup and England's tour to Australia next summer.

"It is very clear to me that the Toulon match can't happen," said Craig, who is based in Aix-en-Provence. "The midweek option is not an option to my mind as that would be to the detriment of player welfare as well as the integrity of two competitions, an important Champions Cup game being squeezed in with all the attendant travel issues between two Premiership weekends.

Some Bath fans made the trip to Toulon before it was abandoned

"There is no way we should be letting that happen. You can't play three high-profile games in a week. In the wider context of what has happened in Paris, this is not a serious matter, of course it isn't. And I do understand why the decision was taken. But from a rugby point of view, and from the point of view of the competition, this is an issue of significant consequence. There is no place to fit it in. It is a bit of a disaster in that regard."

Should the match be rescheduled for the Six Nations period, it is highly unlikely the coaches of England or France would agree to release players, especially whomever becomes Stuart Lancaster's replacement.

Toulon, for all their wealth and success, have very few France internationals of note, save for Mathieu Bastareaud, Maxime Mermoz and Sébastien Tillous-Borde, and their absence would not harm Les Bleus too badly. Bath, on the other hand, possess Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph, Kyle Eastmond, George Ford, Semesa Rokoduguni, Dave Attwood and David Wilson.