Tillous-Borde dropped out of the squad, with Saint-Andre preferring to have Rory Kockott on the bench as backup because of his kicking ability. In fact, L’Equipe, the French sports bible, ran a front-page headline “L’appel a la revolte” (a call to revolt) on Tuesday following their disappointing 24-9 defeat to Ireland at the Millennium Stadium. “Against New Zealand we know that if we want to win we need to play on the front foot”. And given the chopping and changing in selection over the last four years, it’s not clear if Saint-Andre is sure.
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“It hasn’t been a mistake to back Tillous-Borde so far”. “We hope we get easy ones this time, because last week they were all from more than 45 metres out”. Everyone knows him, he’s a great competitor. Bastareaud’s limited game, based around the crash ball and seemingly having nothing to do with deft hands, was rubbed raw by an abrasive Irish defence.
Saint-Andre has brought in Morgan Parra, who made three appearances in this year’s RBS 6 Nations, at scrum-half with Alexandre Dumoulin replacing Mathieu Bastareaud in the centres.
“We have a few days to find this extra soul, this extra malice and intelligence to make the New Zealanders doubt”.
“He’s also well capable of positioning himself appropriately and defending very well”.
Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw, Jerome Kaino, Sam Whitelock and Owen Franks started for the All Blacks in the 2011 final with Sonny Bill Williams coming off the bench.
The other change saw Bernard Le Roux replace Damien Chouly at No. 8.
“If there is no rebellion this week, there never will be”, said Saint-Andre, who steps down after the tournament.
“I expect us to have more ball than last week because our set-piece wasn’t good enough”.
Dubbing the quarter-final an “exceptional event”, Saint-Andre said: “It’s to play in games like this that we’ve been training since childhood”.
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“If there’s not an uprising for this match, you must change sport”, the coach said in warning to his players.
