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Dusautoir to lead France

Dusautoir to lead France

Thierry Dusautoir will captain France in Wales’ crucial RBS 6 Nations clash on Saturday.

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The flanker led France throughout the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Six Nations but did not feature in the autumn internationals and relinquished the captaincy to Pascal Pape.

But the second-row suffered a back injury during Les Bleus’ defeat to Italy and Dusautoir will return to the helm.

Philippe Saint-Andre has brought Toulon’s Jocelino Suta into the squad as cover for Pape but has resisted wholesale changes.

“Aside from Pascal Pape’s injury we resisted the temptation to make changes to the squad as we wanted to work on turning them into a more cohesive unit and also we have one day less to prepare them for the game,” said Saint-Andre.

“I hope that will pay off in terms of cohesion and defying the Welsh on Saturday and there will be a united hunger to do so.

“I have along with Yannick Bru (the forwards coach) and Patrice Lagisquet (the backs coach), re-watched the match several times, analysed and dissected the game and the players. We have remarked on several moments of errors and lack of lucidity and fluency in Sunday’s game.

“It is imperative that our team rediscovers its’ collective hunger, enthusiasm and spontaneity. The tournament is far from over, our ambition is still there to show our best in a high quality competition.”

France squad to face Wales: Vincent Debaty (Clermont), Yannick Forestier (Castres), Benjamin Kayser (Clermont), Dimitri Szarzewski (Racing-Metro), Luc Ducalcon (Racing-Metro), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Yoann Maestri (Toulouse), Jocelino Suta (Toulon), Romain Taofifenua (Perpignan), Damien Chouly (Clermont), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse/capt), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Louis Picamoles (Toulouse), Maxime Machenaud (Racing-Metro), Morgan Parra (Clermont), Frederic Michalak (Toulon), Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Mathieu Bastareaud (Toulon), Benjamin Fall (Racing-Metro), Wesley Fofana (Clermont), Florian Fritz (Toulouse), Yoann Huget (Toulouse), Maxime Mermoz (Toulon).

You can follow all of the action for France v Wales at http://www.wru.co.uk/live

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