Bastareaud benched but Lievremont keeps faith

Published on Wednesday 10 March 2010 22:23

MATHIEU Bastareaud will be on the bench when France continue their bid for an RBS Six Nations Grand Slam against Italy on Sunday.

The powerful Stade Francais centre has impressed in the tournament to date and scored two tries in his side's opening win over Scotland, but has been replaced by Perpignan's David Marty in one of two changes by coach Marc Lievremont for the Stade de France clash.

The other sees Castres' Marc Andreu replace Julien Malzieu of Clermont Auvergne on the right wing, while a third change on the bench sees Biarritz half-back Dimitri Yachvili replace the injured Frederic Michalak.

Marty, 27, has scored five tries in his 13 Six Nations outings to date, though four of those appearances have come from the bench – including in all three of this season's games.

He has scored two tries in the domestic Top 14 this season and will now have the opportunity to make an impact for his country from the outset.

Andreu, more usually a left wing, won his maiden cap as a last-minute replacement for Clement Poitrenaud during the thrilling win over Wales two weeks ago. The French kept their Grand Slam hopes alive after beating Wales 26-20 in Cardiff last month. They will host England on 20 March in their last match in the championship and will hope to still be on course for their first title since 2007 and their first grand slam since 2006.

The forwards will be unchanged from the match against Wales, with No8 Imanol Harinordoquy ruled fit to play despite sustaining a back injury at the weekend. "We hesitated to go for a reshuffle, particularly for the forwards as the substitutes were really convincing when they came on in Cardiff," said Lievremont.

"We decided to opt instead for a form of unity and continuity with our pack that has given us a lot of satisfaction since the start of the championship."

Lievremont said he was taking nothing for granted against Italy, who registered a rare Six Nations win by beating Scotland in their previous outing. "We do fear Italy," he said. "It will be a tricky match because we are the clear favourites."

He added: "Nobody's thinking about England, nobody's thinking about the Grand Slam. If we win against Italy, we will be almost certain to win the championship. Then we can start thinking about the Grand Slam."

France (team to play Italy in the RBS Six Nations at Stade de France on Sunday, 2.30pm): C Poitrenaud (Toulouse); M Andreu (Castres), D Marty (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), A Palisson (Brive); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), M Parra (Clermont Auvergne); T Domingo (Clermont Auvergne), W Servat (Toulouse), N Mas (Perpignan) L Nallet (Racing Metro), J Pierre (Clermont Auvergne), T Dusautoir (Toulouse, captain), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz). Subs: D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), J-B Poux (Toulouse), S Chabal (Racing Metro), A Lapandry (Clermont Auvergne), D Yachvili (Biarritz), M Bastareaud (Stade Francais), J Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne).