Seven to debut for France against Argentina

French Rugby Head Coach Guy Noves has named his team for France’s first of two away tests in Tucumán this month. Los Pumas will host France on Sunday evening at the Estadio Monumental José Fierro.

Noves replaced Philippe Saint Andre as French Head Coach following his country’s worst Rugby World Cup campaign in history. Having been dumped out in the quarter-finals by New Zealand in record fashion the former French winger has gone down as being an ineffective director of the national team.

Noves took over in time for this year’s Six Nations Championship and quickly brought about changes in personal and in playing style. His results, to date, have been substandard but the map he has put in place has his team playing a far more dangerous brand of rugby and one closer to the roots of famous French teams.

His selection of new players for the Six Nations will continue against Argentina with seven debutantes having been included – Rémi Bonfils (Stade Français), William Demotte (Agen), Julien Le Devedec, Julien Rey and Baptiste Serin (all Bordeaux), Kévin Gourdon (La Rochelle) and Xavier Mignot (Grenoble).

So young is the side that the players average just 4.3 test caps and their average is 25. Of Noves prior selection,  the team taht faced England in the Six Nations seen are missing due to club duty in the Top 14 Semi Finals. They are Damien Chouly, Guilhem Guirado, Wesley Fofana, Bernard Le Roux, Maxime Machenaud, Maxime Mermoz, Scott Spedding

Leading a much changed linup will be Jules Plisson from fly half. He replaces François Trinh-Duc who will cover Plisson from the bench. Debutant Serin will join Plisson in the halves, giving Noves a highly open running combination.

Plisson’s clubmate Jonathan Danty is, as expected, to start at inside center. He will be partnered by newcomer Julien Rey who, like Serin, is coming off an impressive season with Bordeaux. Noves has gone for speed outside them with Xavier Mignot being a player Argentina will need to be careful against. His back-three colleagues, Djibril Camara and Hugo Bonneval both started Six Nations test matches.

The pack will see Six Nations props Jefferson Poirot and Rabah Slimani starting. They will do so with debutant Rémi Bonfils who has been a consistently strong performer for Stade Français for a number of years.

Second-rowers William Demotte and Julien Le devedec are both to make their debuts. They are doing so due to the large list of unavailable playersto Top 14 duty and injury. Alexandre Flanquart and Yoann Maestri started vs England but are missing through injury.

Rugby World Cup 2011 back-rower Raphaël Lakafia has received an opportunity, earning a start alongside former La Rochelle teammates Kevin Gourdon and Loann Goujon. The trio are all coming off strong club seasons for their respective clubs in France.

FRANCE
1 Jefferson Poirot, 2 Rémi Bonfils, 3 Rabah Slimani, 4 Julien Le Devedec, 5 William Demotte, 6 Loann Goujon, 7 Raphaël Lakafia, 8 Kevin Gourdon, 9 Baptiste Serin, 10 Jules Plisson (capt.), 11 Djibril Camara, 12 Jonathan Danty, 13 Julien Rey, 14 Xavier Mignot, 15 Hugo Bonneval

Replacements: 16 Clément Maynadier, 17 Uini Atonio, 18 Lucas Pointud, 19 Fabrice Metz, 20 Louis Picamoles, 21 Sébastien Bézy, 22 François Trinh-Duc, 23 Gaël Fickou