A BACK INJURY to Dimitri Yachvili has forced French coach Philippe Saint-André to reshuffle his starting line-up ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Ireland.
Saint-André confirmed this morning that Morgan Parra will start at scrum-half in place of Yachvili, who withdrew from the squad after the acute pain in his lower back failed to ease.
“I don’t feel at 100%,” Yachvili said (see AFP), “and I think it’s more reasonable to rest and recuperate in a bid to be back as quickly as possible to prepare for the next challenges with my club and France.”
Julien Dupuy, scrum-half with Stade Francais, is promoted to the bench.
Yachvili, who has 60 international caps, kicked 10 points during last weekend’s 30-12 win over Italy at the Stade de France and was included again in Saint-André’s starting XV, which was named on Tuesday morning.
But after further assessment by the team doctors, Saint-André decided to make the change sooner rather than later in order to give Parra two full days of preparation for Saturday’s test.
