French embrace their Bok foreign legion

If the kilted Kiwis are now a Six Nations fixture, this week has seen much discussion of Boks in berets.

The South African-born prop Pieter de Villiers is already a regular among Les Bleus, but eyebrows across France will be raised when another player from the Cape, the number eight Steven Hall, stands alongside him this afternoon as the Marseillaise is sung at the Stade de France.

Including the former New Zealand A centre Tony Marsh, France will field three étrangers (foreigners) in their starting line-up. Hall's debut means he is only one of seven imports to have worn the blue jersey since the war, including the Moroccan-born former captain Abdel Benazzi, so the French might be forgiven for currently feeling their home-grown players are being spurned.

Italy's coach Brad Johnstone fields one of his strongest line-ups, including the veteran full back Paolo Vaccari, who makes his Six Nations debut after two years out with injury.

Like Laporte, Johnstone has an import making his debut at number eight, the New Zealand-born Matthew Phillips, who joins another five non-Italians in today's 22-man squad.

REPLACEMENTS

FRANCE: R Ibanez (Castres), JB Poux (Narbonne), F Pelous (Stade Toulouse), E Vermeulen (Montferrand), A Albouy (Castres), F Gelez (Agen), X Garbajosa (Stade Toulouse).

ITALY: G de Carli (Ghial Amatori Calvisano), A Moreno (Worcester), M Giacheri (Sale Sharks), A Percisco (Arix Viadana), JM Queirolo (Dax), R Pez (Rotherham), M Bergamasco (APS Padova).

REFEREE: Alan Lewis (Ireland)

TOUCH JUDGES: Alain Rolland (Ireland) and Steve Lander (Eng)

France v Italy

Stade de France, Saturday, 2.0

ON TELEVISION: BBC, Network 2