French brace themselves for bruising battle

France v South Africa:FRANCE ARE steeling themselves for a brutal match at the Municipal Stadium in Toulouse tonight. In the build-up to the game, former captain Fabien Pelous provided a pithy assessment of the challenge the French face.

“The All Blacks have the best technical players and the Australians are the best tactically,” he said, “but the South Africans, they have huge beasts. They have taken up the option of destroying everyone physically.”

Wary as they are of the Springboks’ physicality, Marc Lievremont’s squad have been preparing themselves for a rough-and-tumble tussle. Biarritz prop Fabien Barcella admitted as much yesterday.

“The Springboks have a fighting culture and very impressive power,” he said. “Sometimes they are borderline. They like to hurt you. It’s up to us to show that we can hurt them even more by turning up with a warrior’s mentality.”

Lievremont has geared his selection towards matching South Africa’s power. Yann David has come in at outside-centre because of the extra bulk he offers in comparison to David Marty, who is the regular club partner of the number 12 Maxime Mermoz, while Damien Traille has been switched to fullback ahead of the dashing Maxime Medard to provide extra solidity under the high ball.

South Africa have not beaten France away since 1997 – losing on their last three tours there – and since the French managed a 27-22 victory over New Zealand in Dunedin in June the home side are now subject to high expectations.

However, Lievremont, who finally seems to have stopped tinkering with the team and is starting to focus on getting the squad to gel ahead of the 2011 World Cup, says the French are not favourites.

“We will have to get our basics absolutely perfect, in terms of impact, precision, launching attacks, our kicking game, our attitude,” he said.

“South Africa largely dominated the Tri-Nations series this summer and the spine of their team is extremely strong.”

South Africa make four changes from their final Tri-Nations clash with New Zealand in September, with Zane Kirchner returning at fullback in place of Frans Steyn, who plays his club rugby in France. JP Pietersen returns on the wing in place of Odwa Ndungane. Centre Adi Jacobs and number eight Ryan Kankowski, who were on the bench in the last Test against the All Blacks, have been drafted into the starting line-up in place of Jean de Villiers and the injured Pierre Spies.

Wian du Preez, named on the replacements’ bench, is the only uncapped player in the 22.

Springboks coach Peter de Villiers said: “The core of the squad did duty during the Tri-Nations campaign and will provide us with stability going into this tough opening Test.

“There are a lot of experienced players in the starting XV as well as on the bench which will be important to our continuity as well as to ensuring we maintain our structures and play the way we want to.”

The Springboks’ face Italy on November 21st and then travel to Ireland the following week.

Guardian Service

Wales expecting the unexpected from Samoa

THE LAST time Wales played a team from the South Seas it marked one of their low points of the decade. Determined to play a structured game against Fiji to take them through to the 2007 World Cup quarter-finals, they found themselves suckered into a free-for-all and a subsequent flight home.

That defeat in Nantes prompted the Welsh Rugby Union to entice Warren Gatland from Waikato to take over as head coach, and Wales are now far better equipped to stick to a game plan against Samoa in Cardiff tonight.

They will need to be. Despite having limited preparation time, Samoa will ask questions of Wales in a way New Zealand did not last Saturday. Their natural inclination is to run rather than kick, preferring the flamboyant to the disciplined, and they will look to force mistakes in the opening exchanges.

It will be a question of how quickly Wales react to the unfamiliar. They have been together as a squad for the past three weeks, but they are fielding inexperienced players in key places in outhalf Dan Biggar and flanker Sam Warburton.

“You can talk to players as often as you like one to one, but nothing beats the experience of playing,” said the Wales attack coach, Rob Howley. “We have stressed the importance of playing the game on our terms and being aware of Samoa’s strengths, because they have a number of players who play top-flight club rugby in Europe, but it all comes down to execution.”

Samoa have won three of their previous six Tests with Wales and they were the first team to defeat them at the Millennium Stadium back in 1999. But the gains they made towards the end of the amateur era have been progressively eroded as the leading countries, in a dash for cash, arranged more matches against each other and confined the emerging nations to the margins.

The rugby world talks about expansion and making the game truly global, but the big boys keep their backs turned and Samoa have not entertained a tier-one side for six years. However, Samoa can look to Fiji for their lead, not just in Nantes but in Cardiff on a Friday night in 2005, when Wales needed a late drop-goal to win by a point.