Horan out as French call up old hands

Six Nations Championship France v IrelandIreland's preparations for tomorrow's game suffered a setback yesterday with the withdrawal of Marcus Horan through illness.

Leinster prop Reggie Corrigan has been drafted into the starting XV in place of Horan, who has the "winter vomiting bug".

Corrigan won the last of his 46 caps during the 2005 summer tour to Japan and was replaced by Munster frontrow Horan for the November internationals.

In selecting Corrigan, Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan has left Ulster's Simon Best on the bench for the Stade de France game.

Bernard Laporte and the French think tank yesterday showed their hand for the game - prior to a training session on an all-weather, roofed pitch at the French Federation's €3 million National Centre du Rugby in Marcoussis. It's not exactly the Lansdowne Road back pitch.

With another five pitches and all manner of state-of-the-art facilities, the NCR is a permanent home to the under-19 academy as well as a base camp for all the national squads.

Fronted by a Jean-Pierre Rives sculpture (a rusted, spiralling work about 20 feet tall, very existentialist apparently, and way beyond the descriptive powers of a sports hack) and located inside an electronic gate, so out of the way is it (even for an incomprehensible Parisian taxi driver) it has been nicknamed "Marcatraz".

It won't have felt like a prison to Raphael Ibanez, Olivier Milloud, Olivier Magne, David Marty and Aurelien Rougerie, all of whom have been recalled, with Christophe Dominici moving to fullback. Out go Dimitri Szarzewski, Sylvain Marconnet, Remy Martin, Ludovic Valbon and Nicolas Brusque, with Szarzewski and Brusque not even making the bench.

Asked why five changes, Laporte explained: "Because we needed fresh blood to generate more competition for places. Until last week everybody was playing well, but we were not so good against Scotland and not everybody accepted their responsibilities. For example, Szarzewski was very good in November but not so good in Scotland. Perhaps he thought he was installed in the team and now he has to reflect on himself and his performances."

Manager Joe Maso also admitted the nature of the defeat in Scotland suggested a need for more experience: "Scotland showed more commitment and enthusiasm, and while Raphael and Olivier are not the youngest, during this week's training and in their club form beforehand they showed they had the commitment and desire to come back. And their experience will be a positive for the team."

Ibanez and Magne, both former captains, now based with Wasps and London Irish respectively, must have feared they would be out of sight and out of mind. Ibanez actually retired after the 2003 World Cup finals but like others before him appears to have been rejuvenated by Wasps' famed fitness regime.

Both will have plenty to prove tomorrow with a view to extending their careers into the World Cup.

"Why have we recalled Raphael Ibanez?" Laporte asked rhetorically. "Because when we brought Raphael into the France A team against Tonga in November he was one of the few players who played well in that game. So we told him we know him and we don't need to play you too much, that we'd give Szarzewski and Bruno their chances, and if we needed him we would call him back. It was the same with Magne."

The pack's average age is nearly 30, and it boast 393 caps.

In midfield, a catalogue of injuries to established centres has compelled France to put together the relatively callow combination of David Marty and Florian Fritz.

"We put them together because they are young and enthusiastic, and they have the power and the pace to counter Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy," said Laporte. "They have to use their pace in defence to defy O'Driscoll and D'Arcy and they can do good things for the French team."

During his BBC co-commentary last week Jonathan Davies maintained France would not win the World Cup with Frederic Michalak at outhalf. But Laporte yesterday argued that to sacrifice Michalak would also mean sacrificing too much of the team's creativity, and that playing him and his Toulouse halfback partner Jean-Baptiste Elissalde might help the confidence of both.

"We talked about changing players at nine and 10, because they were not so good against Scotland, but we decided to give them another chance. We said to Frederic, 'Okay, you made three mistakes in three minutes. If you continue like that it's not good, but you have another chance to show this was just an accident.' And he's intelligent enough to understand what he has to do."

The likes of Damien Traille and Serge Betsen were deemed not quite match-hardened for Test rugby.

Number eight Julien Bonnaire has been passed fit and retained, not least because of his lineout expertise, yet there remains a question about the balance of the back row - potentially very dynamic but with no breakdown specialist - the age profile of their tight five, the untried and unproven midfield and what looks like an unexceptional kicking game.