Back in Bleu: Yannick Nyanga
France have called up flanker Yannick Nyanga for the November Tests as an injury replacement for his Toulouse team-mate and France skipper Thierry Dusautoir.
Dusautoir is expected to be out of action for around six weeks with a knee injury but will nevertheless join Philippe Saint-André's team when they gather at French headquarters at Marcoussis outside Paris from November 2.
Nyanga, who won the last of his 25 caps in the third-place play-off against Argentina at the 2007 World Cup, takes the place left open by Dusautoir in the 33-man squad.
Stade Français lock Pascal Papé will take over the captaincy.
Les Bleus' November international series kicks off against Australia on November 10, before matches against Argentina and Samoa on the following weekends.
Comments
pierredelot1 says...
From a France point of view it's great to see him back in the squad, from a Toulouse point of view I'm not so sure. He's a great player and wonderfully quick as he carries little bulk, but because of that gets injured a bit more than most. I thought he opted out of the French squad for a while and he certainly had a couple of seasons with Toulouse where he wasn't first choice, but that may have been due to injury rather than form. Great player to watch, exciting, should have been up there from the off, he changes the dynamic of the game.
Posted 08:16 25th October 2012
Rosbif says...
rugby_rockstar. the problem, as you suggest, is we have too many options at 10 currently, but none of them is a clear stand-out player. Current crop would be Trinh-Duc, Michalak, Beauxis, Wisniewski, Plisson, Parra (remember him at 10?) as well as a few U20s playing in the Top14. Even Estebanez and Traille have had a go at 10 in the last 5 years or so....
(Going back in time, I think you may mean Gerald Merceron, the Montferrand player, rather than Ludovic Mercier the Gloucester man?)
Otherwise, the list has people like Elissalde, Skrela, Boyet, Michalak, Merceron, Lamaison, Penaud, Castaignede, Deylaud, Camberabero - all good players, yes, but no-one close to a Lynagh or Ella, Hugo Porta, Fox, Mehrtens or DC, Wilko or Andrew, Barry John or Phil Bennett, Naas Botha or Stransky etc etc.
Posted 19:41 24th October 2012
Rosbif says...
@philipjfry, as mlbp says, the answer in many ways is Dusautoir himself. Nyanga is viewed as just too similar I guess (which in many people's view is not such a bad thing). Ouedraogo offers a little more bulk in a similar role. And Harinordoquy and Bonnaire are better in the air, and can both play 8 too.
And (is it OK to say?) in Marc Lievremont we had about the only coach in world rugby to make PDV look sane, so trying to guess what was going on in his head is pretty difficult!!
Posted 18:11 24th October 2012
philipjfry says...
Monsieurs, why did Nyanga have to wait so many years for a recall? What made him fall out of favour so drastically?
Posted 17:36 24th October 2012
Toulousain says...
rugby_rockstar. you have hit on one of the unique, or we could say anachronistic, peculiarities of french rugby. we do not worship the number 10. he is just another player. the playmaker or "petit general" is no 9. for many years we also had left and right centres, left and right flankers, and left and right half backs (ie 9 and 10 interchangeable), the idea being to speed up the game after 1st phase. but the consequence of all this, especially not seeing the 10 as "special", means we have never really produced a world XV no 10.
on the question of depth (which I think is a separate question really) i would happily take the pepsi challenge with most other nations. could be fun to see how 3rd or 4th XVs rank if we could organise a tournament? my gut tells me nz would win, but france would do well, as would sa and eng, probably in that order. the celtic nations and aus would find it much harder i imagine!
Posted 14:57 24th October 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
Oooo Italy vs Tonga... intriguing! I wonder if the Tongans can gell in time?
Posted 14:10 24th October 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
as far as french player depth goes, it's a bit uneven in france as it is with most countries. check out the french options at 10 and then ask yourself how many and actually reliable. They are all a bit flakey IMO, certainly no one has nailed the shirt down. who was the last truly great french 10? Lamaisson? Mercier? Michalac??? not sure if any of them really qualify. Mercier of probably the most dependable if not the most spectacular. Lamaisson moved all over the french backline, Michalac has had some serious howlers. The other recent guys got replaced by a scrumhalf!!!!
Posted 14:08 24th October 2012
melkdave says...
A fine player and experianced a very fitting replacement fot TD in every way.Was a little surprised he didnt make the original squad tbh
Posted 11:37 24th October 2012
Rosbif says...
Thanks for the kind words from NZ chaps! Nyanga is indeed a good player and was not picked in the original 33. Then again, you guys have some experience of this sort of thing every year I guess.... Sivivatu and Gear not making the recent RWC squad was pretty surprising to us I can tell you....
Re Dusautoir, the bloke has torn knee ligaments. Not ruptured, but still not great. We're hoping he doesn't get rushed back. He's been off colour this season so far, and a wee bit of rest will do him good. Should mean he is in better shape come the AB series next year :-)
(Pls note, a lot of people are also pretty pleased that the gouger Rougerie hasn't made the squad - his days in a national team shirt are effectively over hopefully)
Posted 08:10 24th October 2012
mlbp says...
I always wondered why he wasn't in the squad more often. He's fast, aggressive, tackles well... He was a Dusautoir before Dusautoir went to the national team.
Posted 08:06 24th October 2012
cuw3100 says...
interesting words: injury replacement!
seriously he was not in the original squad??
now who said only NZ has player depth :)
Posted 04:44 24th October 2012
paulynz says...
Very disappointing. Fine, fine player. Very highly regarded here in New Zealand.
Posted 19:12 23rd October 2012