Phillipe Saint-André welcomes back veterans Theirry Dusautoir, captain of the squad, and Louis Picamoles to his squad for next month’s Autumn Internationals. The two Toulouse men come in in place of Castres’ Antoine Claassen and Stade Français’ uncapped Antoine Burban.
The biggest surprise comes in the selection of Castres prop Yannick Forestier, who has not featured since the second game of last season’s Six Nations and is selected ahead of Clermont’s Vincent Debaty. There is, once again and somewhat bafflingly, no room in the squad for Montpellier’s in form fly-half François Trinh-Duc.
France training squad:
Forwards: Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Yannick Forestier (Castres), Benjamin Kayser (Clermont), Dimitri Szarzewski (Racing-Métro), Nicolas Mas (Montpellier), Rabah Slimani (Stade Français), Alexandre Flanquart (Stade Français), Yoann Maestri (Toulouse), Pascal Papé (Stade Français), Sébastien Vahaamahina (Perpignan), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, cap), Bernard Le Roux (Racing-Métro), Yannick Nyanga (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Damien Chouly (Clermont), Louis Picamoles (Toulouse).
Backs: Jean-Marc Doussain (Toulouse), Maxime Machenaud (Racing-Métro), Morgan Parra (Clermont), Camille Lopez (Perpignan), Rémi Talès (Castres), Mathieu Bastareaud (Toulon), Gaël Fickou (Toulouse), Wesley Fofana (Clermont), Florian Fritz (Toulouse), Maxime Mermoz (Toulon), Maxime Médard (Toulouse), Sofiane Guitoune (Perpignan), Brice Dulin (Castres), Yoann Huget (Toulouse).
PSA is becoming the Peter De Villiers of France. Trinh-duc’s exclusion is ridiculous. At least there is no Michalak this time around. And by dropping Debaty, I don’t have to feel any sympathy for the french this time. (I’m Belgian)
Yes i would agree, how this Trinh Duc can be left out is totally beyond me!
One can only assume that Trinh-Duc has insulted his wife at some soiree or other.
The most perplexing exclusion is Pelissie from Montpellier. In my opinion the stand-out 9 in the Top 14.
So who are the 10′s in that squad?
Lopez and Tales – both won their first caps on tour to New Zealand over the summer.
So they’ve resisted the urge to pick a load of their non-French but qualified players then?
So for a stand-off, will Parra once again be shifted from the nine shirt he wears so well? The Southern Hemisphere teams must be quakin in their boots