Michalak Out Of French Side

Fly-half Frederic Michalak, suffering from the effects of a dislocated shoulder, has been left out of the French side for their RBS Six Nations clash with Italy on Saturday and is replaced by uncapped Biarritz stand-off Julien Peyrelongue in an
otherwise unchanged team.

The 22-year-old got the nod ahead of South African-born centre
Brian
Liebenberg, who had been thought of as a possible replacement for
Michalak.

“We talked it over with Liebenberg,” said France coach
Bernard Laporte.
“However we felt he wasn’t ready for it. He explained that he hasn’t played fly-half for two years at
Stade
Francais,” added Laporte.

Laporte revealed that 21-year-old Michalak could have played if
they had
given him an injection to relieve the pain.

“However we thought in the best interests of the player and
his club that
we couldn’t do such a thing,” said Laporte.

Peyrelongue, 22, was due to play for the France A side this week
and will
form a relatively inexperienced halfback partnership – the 19th under
Laporte’s five year stewardship – with Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who
won just
his fifth cap in the 35-17 defeat of Ireland last Saturday.

Before the Ireland match, Elissalde had only made four brief
appearances as
a replacement and he will have extra duties on Saturday as he will
have to do
all the kicking for goal as Peyrelongue is not a specialist.

Laporte, though, had no qualms about pitching the Biarritz
fly-half into
the fray against the weakest team in the tournament, who were
thrashed 50-9 by
Grand Slam holders and world champions England last Sunday.

“Peyrelongue is a very good player,” said the
39-year-old. “The only small problem is that he can’t kick for goal. However he is good both in attack and in defence and he has
progressed a
lot in his kicking out of hand,” added Laporte, who was
especially vexed by
Michalak’s positional kicking against the Irish.

Peyrelongue burst into the spotlight in 2002 when Biarritz won the
French
championship and is a former French Under-21 international.

Both of the players who made their debuts against Ireland —
hooker William
Servat and lock Pascal Pape, who scored a try, retained their places
ahead of
the vastly more experienced Yannick Bru and David Auradou.

France:
Nicolas Brusque (Biarritz); Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Yannick
Jauzion
(Toulouse), Damien Traille (Pau), Christophe Dominici (Stade
Francais); Julien
Peyrelongue (Biarritz), Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (Toulouse); Imanol
Harinordoquy (Pau), Olivier Magne (Montferrand), Serge Betsen
(Biarritz),
Pascal Pape (Bourgoin), Fabien Pelous (Toulouse, capt), Pieter De
Villiers
(Stade Francais), William Servat (Toulouse), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade
Francais)
Replacements: Yannick Bru (Toulouse), Jean-Jacques Crenca (Agen),
David
Auradou (Stade Francais), Thomas Lievremont (Biarritz), Dimitri
Yachvili
(Biarritz), Brian Liebenberg (Stade Francais), Pepito Elhorga (Agen)