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MARCOUSSIS, France - France are approaching the 2008 Six Nations rugby championship with new coaches, a fresh captain, new players and a resolve to restore the flair they failed to show at last year's World Cup.
In the centre of the sweeping changes is coach Marc Lievremont, appointed
just after the 2007 World Cup where France were defeated on home soil by England in the semifinals.
Lievremont succeeded Bernard Laporte, who joined the government as a junior minister for sport, and his mission is to restore the pride in French rugby.
"We want to put into action a game deliberately expansive and even excessive," the former international flanker has said.
The players in his first squad confirmed their coach's intent after they assembled to train for France's Six Nations opener at against Scotland at Murrayfield on Monday (NZT).
"We just had a meeting. The coaches said they wanted us to show great initiative, to play wide with a lot of moves and not to limit our game to a stereotyped model," new captain Lionel Nallet said today.
"They want us to be bold and to enjoy ourselves."
The choice of Lievremont, who pipped Philippe Saint-Andre, Fabien Galthie and Guy Noves for the job, was an obvious break with the autocratic Laporte, nicknamed Bernie-le-dingue (Mad Bernie) by his opponents.
The new coach struck his first blow when he appointed Lionel Nallet as captain to replace Raphael Ibanez, who has retired from international rugby.
Once again it was a surprise choice and a further break from the regime of Laporte as the 31-year-old, who has 32 caps and plays his club rugby with Castres, had been omitted from all the important World Cup games.
Another shock came when trainers Lievremont, Emile Ntamak and Didier Retiere named their first Six Nations squad.
The 22-player list included only 11 of the 30 members of the World Cup squad.
Yannick Jauzion was not available through injury, Frederic Michalak has gone to South Africa while Sebastian Chabal, Jerome Thion, Imanol Harinordoquy, Remy Martin, Yannick Nyanga, Pierre Mignoni and Clement Poitrenaud were dropped.
In came six uncapped players plus two youngsters with one or two international games to their name.
Lievremont has named props Lionel Faure and Julien Brugnaut, lock Arnaud Mela, flanker Fulgence Oueadrogo, halfback Morgan Parra, first five-eighth Francois Trinh-Duc and wing Julien Malzieu.
Parra is 19, Oueadrogo and Trinh-Duc are two years older and Jacquet is 22.
Mela comes from Albi with a dubious reputation after collecting 11 yellow cards in the past two seasons while Brugnault plays with Dax, the club Lievremont coached to the top flight last season.
Faure is better known in Sale, where he shares the tighthead position with England's Andrew Sheridan, than in France.
"We selected those players with the 2011 World Cup in mind and we also wanted a team that could be competitive at this year's Six Nations," said Lievremont, who will name his first starting lineup tomorrow.
- REUTERS