Rugby – Six Nations | France makes makes changes to face Ireland

France’s rugby coach Guy Noves (right) watches his players as they practice during a training session at the National Rugby Center in Paris

France coach Guy Noves has made three changes for the Six Nations match at Ireland tomorrow [Sun, 00:30am], one he considers “crucial” in the team’s development after narrow losses against rugby’s leading nations.

France has improved under Noves and competed well against New Zealand and Australia in the November test series, only to lose narrowly against England in their Six Nations opener three weeks ago.

“We competed for 70 minutes against England. This match is crucial in a way because we need big performances against the best teams,” Noves said. “Ireland, without question is among them.”

Ireland ended New Zealand’s 18-game winning run when it beat the All Blacks 40-29 in November.

Tomorrow, Yoann Huget will start at right wing instead of Virimi Vakatawa, who has a thigh problem, with Noa Nakaitaci switching over to the left wing to accommodate Huget.

“Yoann is coming back to form. He’s full of energy and his commitment to his teammates has been exceptional,” Noves said. “That’s what we expect in the France team, that players put themselves at the service of the team.”

The other two changes are in the forwards. South African-born Bernard Le Roux will come in at flanker for the injured Loann Goujon, and Rabah Slimani — France’s try scorer against England — will replace prop Uini Atonio, who is out of form and has been benched.

Noves said France needs a “powerful player” like Le Roux, who is also very mobile, against the strong Irish pack.

However, Noves made a surprising decision not to pick a flyhalf among his reserves, and said that scrumhalf Baptiste Serin could switch to flyhalf if he brings on another scrumhalf during the match at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

In the first two matches, France lost at England 19-16 and beat Scotland 22-16 at home, while Ireland lost at Scotland 27-22 and routed Italy 63-10 in Rome.

Noves underlined the attacking threat of an Ireland team that scored nine tries against the Italians, but he also said the Irish “momentarily fell asleep” when losing to Scotland, leaving it too late despite a strong comeback after trailing 21-8 at halftime.

Last year, France scraped past Ireland 10-9 at home in a dour contest — one of France’s two wins in the tournament — and the previous year lost 18-11 in Dublin. AP

Barclay named Scotland captain to play Whales

Foward John Barclay will replace injured Greig Laidlaw as Scotland captain against Wales in the Six Nations tomorrow [10:25pm].

Laidlaw has been ruled out of the championship with an ankle injury.

Scotland coach Vern Cotter has been forced to make three injury-enforced changes for the game at Murrayfield. Ali Price will make his first start for the national team at scrum-half, Ryan Wilson will replace number eight Josh Strauss and winger Tim Visser will come in for Sean Maitland.

In two tactical changes, prop Gordon Reid and flanker John Hardie trade places with Allan Dell and Hamish Watson. “We’ve now had two weeks to recover, reflect and prepare a new game plan for Wales,” Cotter said.

Scotland beat Ireland 27-22 in its first Six Nations game but then lost to France 22-16.