Coach Bobbie Goulding will finalise his France team to face New Zealand in Toulouse just an hour before kick-off.
France coach will not finalise team until just before match
Coach Bobbie Goulding will finalise the France team to face New Zealand in Toulouse just an hour before kick-off due to the injury, illness and suspension problems that have plagued the squad.
Goulding was forced to draft in New Zealand-born forwards Artie Shead and Andrew Bentley ahead of Saturday's Gillette Four Nations clash when he was down to just 16 players at training earlier this week.
Second rower Cyril Gossard and centres Jean-Philippe Baile and Sebastian Raguin have all been sidelined with knee injuries, while prop Remi Casty is out with a broken hand and fellow front rower David Ferriol is suspended.
In addition, winger Dimitri Pelo went down with swine flu last weekend and has been in quarantine ever since and full-back Clint Greenshields has also shown signs of the illness.
At the beginning of the tournament Goulding had a 22-man squad and when Casey McGuire withdrew he was granted permission to bring in Shead and Bentley, who both qualify to play for France through residency.
Positive
Goulding has received some positive news that half-backs Maxime Gresque and Christophe Moly have both recovered from the injuries which saw them ruled-out of the 34-12 loss to England in Doncaster, and winger Cyril Stacul is also likely to return.
After opening with an uplifting 20-20 draw against Australia, New Zealand are favourites to extend their unbeaten run against the French to 19 matches.
However, New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney has warned his players not to be complacent after the Kiwis were made to work for their 22-14 victory on their last visit to France two years ago.
"You only have to look at Tests the Kiwis have played here against the French
in recent years," said Kearney.
"We need to be mindful about working to improve in a lot of areas of our game and being concerned with getting our preparation right to give us every chance of putting together the sort of performance that will be required."
