Maso aims to make Ireland pay

Ireland-France games have been tempestuous affairs in the past, arguably more so at Lansdowne Road, and in advance of the latest instalment in Dublin this Saturday the French manager Jo Maso has added a whiff of gallic cordite to the air with some vengeful eve-of-match comments.

Overlooking the previous 15 successive French wins in the fixture Maso, one of the true greats of classical French midfield artistry in his day, instead focused in on Ireland's temerity in ending that sequence in Paris last season prior to the squad's departure for Dublin today.

Although only three of the French starting XV on duty a year ago survive, and nine of the respective 22, Maso vowed yesterday: "They beat us last year and we'll go to Dublin to take revenge. We want to give them a taste of their own medicine."

As expected, French coach Bernard Laporte has retained all bar the suspended Fabien Galthie of the starting XV which laboured to an opening 16-6 win over Scotland a fortnight ago for Saturday's rendezvous. In keeping with a notably experienced side, Galthie is replaced by the Pau scrumhalf Philippe Carbonneau, who returns to the starting line-up for the first time in almost two years.

"We know that Philippe Carbonneau has great talent," commented Laporte. "He played for us for several years but apart from scrumhalf we have looked for continuity. Our performance (against Scotland) was far from perfect but it was our first match of the championship and we won."

Indicative of French rugby's mercurial tendencies, just as pertinently perhaps Laporte has thus retained 13 of the starting XV which beat the All Blacks by 42-33 last November in Marseille, the other change also being enforced as former captain Raphael Ibanez is again at hooker in the absence of the injured Fabrice Landreau.

"We hope for the continuity and we want to keep the pace we had last fall," said Laporte in reference to the win over the All Blacks, before acknowledging "but the game against Ireland on Saturday will have a special flavour."

All in all, although only slightly older, this is a fairly gnarled and grizzled French outfit with a cumulative total of 90 caps more than the Irish starting XV, and which is more experienced in 10 of the 15 head-to-heads. Furthermore they have the old warhorses Cristian Califano and Abdelatif Benazzi to spring from the bench, as well as the elusiveness of Christophe Dominici.

After Dominici's battle with depression and a stay in hospital earlier this season, their talisman of the World Cup is still rediscovering his best form but clearly Laporte is keen to have him involved in a starting lineup before the end of the championship.

However, once Laporte declined to make any changes to his original squad of 22 it was widely expected that the French coach was going to give the team which played Scotland at least one more chance en bloc. Laporte has been publicly critical of centre Franck Comba's distributive skills and combined with the fiercely competitive if limited Richard Dourthe, this pair possibly gave the worst exhibition of French midfield play of all time a fortnight ago.

When Dourthe wasted a two-man overlap by mispassing wildly into touch rather than to the dangerous Philippe BernatSalles (whose speed, elusiveness and eye for the line show no sign of weakening despite Saturday being his 31st birthday), the cameras even caught Maso shaking his head in disgust.

However, a once fertile area is now relatively barren and after one of the revelations of the French season, 22-year-old Colomiers' centre Yannick Jauzion, was overlooked for the 22-man squad, it was clear he was being earmarked for the A game in Ravenhill tomorrow night. Recently troubled by injury, the hard-tackling Jauzion is regarded as the big hope of French midfield play and may well figure next time out against Italy, but beyond him, with Emile Ntamack and Thomas Castaingede injured, there really weren't too many options.

Tempering Maso's slightly provocative remarks, Ibanez retracted some derogatory remarks about his counterpart Keith Wood during the World Cup, which the Irish captain ignored anyhow. Ibanez attributed his stressful mind at the time to captaining France in a pressurised World Cup scenario, and sought to put the issue behind him.

"I've a lot of respect for Ireland. It's always a very good game, very tough," commented Ibanez, adding: "Lansdowne Road is the last stadium with the old traditions. You have to be very ready in your mind to play Ireland and especially when you play hooker."

In advance of the first home international of the Six Nations Championship, Irish Permanent has confirmed that it will commit over £500,000 in support of the Irish team this year. The investment covers both the cost of the sponsorship and related marketing support. This is the second of a four-year deal, estimated to be in excess of £1.35 million, which covers the Test team, the A team and the sponsorship of friendly internationals.