France bench Bastareaud

by Mark Doyle , 10 March 2010

France boss Marc Lievremont has surprisingly dropped Mathieu Bastareaud to the bench for Sunday's RBS 6 Nations clash with Italy in Rome.


Bastareaud has been in fine form for Les Bleus in the Championship thus far, but he has made way at outside centre for David Marty.

The only other change to the starting XV which defeated Wales in Cardiff just under a fortnight ago also comes in the back-line, with Castres' Marc Andreu preferred to Julien Malzieu on the right wing.

There is room on the bench, meanwhile, for Dimitri Yachvili following the withdrawal of Frederic Michalak, who suffered a knee injury in the opening minutes of Toulouse's Top 14 rout of Stade Francais at the weekend.

France: C Poitrenaud; M Andreu, D Marty, Y Jauzion, A Palisson; F Trinh-Duc, M Parra; T Domingo, W Servat, N Mas; L Nallet, J Pierre; T Dusautoir (capt), J Bonnaire, I Harinordoquy.
Replacements: D Szarzewski, J-B Poux, S Chabal, A Lapandry, D Yachvili, M Bastareaud, J Malzieu.

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