Six Nations: France’s Phillipe Saint-Andre wary of favourites tag

FRANCE coach Philippe Saint-Andre has warned his players not to take Italy for granted as the tournament favourites open their RBS Six Nations campaign in Paris.

Italy are again expected to struggle while France, beaten finalists in the World Cup in New Zealand, start as the fancied team in the Six Nations.

But Saint-Andre refuses to get carried away by his side’s pre-tournament billing and prefers to adopt a cautious approach, reflecting on his side’s embarrassing 22-21 Six Nations defeat in Rome last season, a first defeat to Italy in the tournament for Les Blues.

“We shouldn’t believe that the match against Italy will be easy,” said Saint-Andre. “We will play with a lot of humility and desire. We will try to do anything to start well in this competition.”

Saint-Andre has relied on the basis of the squad which took France to the final in Wellington where they were edged 8-7 by New Zealand. Ten of the line-up at the Stade de France today took part in the World Cup final, with Saint-Andre bringing in three players who have starred for Clermont Auvergne this season. With the club second in the Top 14 and having qualified for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, Wesley Fofana, Julien Malzieu and Vincent Debaty have been added to the players who took part in the World Cup.

For Fofana it will be a Test debut as he comes in at centre in place of Perpignan’s Maxime Mermoz.

New Italy coach Jacques Brunel guided Perpignan to the Top 14 title three years ago having also served as assistant to Bernard Laporte, who was France coach from 2001 to 2007. He takes charge of Italy for the first time since succeeding Nick Mallett, who signed off from the role with a 36-6 defeat to Ireland in the World Cup.

Brunel will look to the experience of captain Sergio Parisse and Martin Castrogiovanni as the coach faces his home nation. Aironi winger Giovanbattista Venditti and Treviso half-back Kris Burton are the only players in the starting line-up not to feature in the World Cup.

Burton comes in for Aironi fly-half Luciano Orquera, and Venditti takes over from Treviso’s Tommaso Benvenuti, who moves to centre from right wing.

France: M Medard (Toulouse); V Clerc (Toulouse), A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), W Fofana (Clermont Auvergne), J Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), D Yachvili (Biarritz); V Debaty (Clermont Auvergne), W Servat (Toulouse), N Mas (Perpignan), P Pape (Stade Francais), L Nallet (Racing Metro), T Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), L Picamoles (Toulouse). Replacements: D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), J-B Poux (Toulouse), Y Maestri (Toulouse), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz), M Parra (Clermont Auvergne), L Beauxis (Toulouse), M Mermoz (Perpignan).

Italy: A Masi (Aironi); G Venditti (Aironi), T Benvenuti (Treviso), A Sgarbi (Treviso), L McLean (Treviso); K Burton (Treviso), E Gori (Treviso); A Lo Cicero (Racing Metro), L Ghiraldini (Treviso), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester), C Van Zyl (Treviso), Q Geldenhuys (Aironi), A Zanni (Treviso), R Barbieri (Treviso), S Parisse (Stade Francais, capt). Replacements: T D’Apice (Aironi), L Cittadini (Treviso), M Bortolami (Aironi), S Favaro (Aironi), F Semenzato (Treviso), T Botes (Treviso), G Canale (Clermont Auvergne).

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).