France v England - Teams

France v England, Saturday Feb. 23, Stade de France, Paris, KO 8pm

Last updated: 22nd February 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

France v England - Teams

Pape: Replaces Millo-Chluski.

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Pascal Pape has been promoted into France's starting XV to take on England in the RBS Six Nations after Romain Millo-Chluski was ruled out.

Toulouse lock Millo-Chluski had been due to make only his second start for Les Bleus after being included in the side by coach Marc Lievremont.

However Millo-Chluski limped out of training on Tuesday having damaged his Achilles tendon - and will be sidelined for at least a fortnight.

Stade Francais forward Pape had originally been named on the bench, however he now replaces Millo-Chluski - with Biarritz lock Jérôme Thion included amond the replacements.

Props

Props Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery return for England for Saturday's clash at the Stade de France.

Captain Vickery, who missed the match against Italy with a stomach bug, earns an instant recall while Sale's Sheridan comes in after recovering from an abscess on his Achilles.

Scrum-half Andy Gomarsall is dropped, with Richard Wigglesworth starting at nine and Paul Hodgson named on the bench.

Coach Brian Ashton has opted against making wholesale changes despite his side's defeat to Wales and unconvincing victory over Italy.

Blackpool-born Wigglesworth replaces 2003 World Cup winner Gomarsall, who has paid the price for poor displays in England's two previous matches.

Sheridan, who has also been troubled by a back injury this season, returns at the expense of Wasps loosehead Tim Payne, while Vickery regains the captaincy from lock Steve Borthwick and replaces Matt Stevens, who drops down to the bench.

Substitutes

There is also a place among the substitutes for 22-year-old uncapped Leicester flanker Tom Croft, with Gloucester's Luke Narraway missing out.

England will return to Paris with seven of the starting line-up that accounted for France in last October's World Cup semi-final - Sheridan, Vickery, hooker Mark Regan, lock Simon Shaw, number eight Nick Easter, fly-half Jonny Wilkinson and wing Paul Sackey.

France: 15 Cédric Heymans, 14 Aurelien Rougerie, 13 David Marty, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Vincent Clerc, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Julien Bonnaire, 5 Pascal Pape, 4 Lionel Nallet (c), 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Lionel Faure
Replacements: 16 William Servat, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Jérôme Thion, 19 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 2O Dimitri Yachvili, 21 David Skrela, 22 Anthony Floch

England: 15 I Balshaw (Gloucester); 14 P Sackey (Wasps), 13 J Noon (Newcastle), 12 T Flood (Newcastle), 11 L Vainikolo (Gloucester); 10 J Wilkinson (Newcastle), 9 R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks); 1 A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), 2 M Regan (Bristol), 3 P Vickery (Wasps, capt), 4 S Shaw (Wasps), 5 S Borthwick (Bath), 6 J Haskell (Wasps), 7 M Lipman (Bath), 8 N Easter (Harlequins)
Replacements: 16 L Mears (Bath), 17 M Stevens (Bath), 18 B Kay (Leicester), 19 T Croft (Leicester), 20 P Hodgson (London Irish), 21 D Cipriani (Wasps), 22 M Tait (Newcastle)

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