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Wesley Fofana (right) holds off Tommaso Benvenuti of Italy during Saturday's Six Nations game at the Stade de France. Christophe Ena/AP/Press Association Images
Six Nations 2012

Saint-André sticks with winning squad for Ireland’s visit

Meanwhile, Ireland have dropped to eighth in the IRB world rankings following yesterday’s defeat against Wales.

FRENCH COACH Philippe Saint-André has named an unchanged 23-man squad ahead of Saturday’s Six Nations meeting with Ireland in the Stade de France.

France ran in four tries in a 30-12 win over Italy on opening weekend, including an international try for Clermont centre Wesley Fofana on his debut for Les Bleus.

Although Saint-André said afterwards that there was “a lot of room for improvement”, he has decided to show faith in the same panel for the game against Ireland, who come in search of a first win on French soil since 2000.

“We had hesitations about two or three positions but after reviewing the video of the match twice, it was thought that there was a great need to see this squad work together again,” Saint-André said (see RBS6nations.com).

I think the starting XV will change. The whole group has invested, concentrated and applied themselves this week. We also had a quality bench against Italy. The replacements brought speed, freshness and energy.

France remain third behind New Zealand and Australia in the latest IRB world rankings which were released today, but Ireland’s 23-21 defeat to Wales sees them drop two places from sixth to eighth.

England remain in fifth, Wales move up two places to sixth, Scotland drop one to 11th, and Italy are unchanged in 12th.

Forwards: Attoub, Debaty, Mas, Poux, Servat, Szarzewski, Pape, Maestri, Nallet, Bonnaire, Dusautoir (c), Picamoles, Harinordoquy. Backs: Parra, Yachvili, Trinh-Duc, Beauxis, Rougerie, Mermoz, Fofana, Clerc, Malzieu, Medard.

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