French drops axe on centre

- AFP - Thursday, October 29, 2009 3:51 PM

MARCOUSSIS - France coach Marc Lievremont said he would not rule Mathieu Bastareaud out of the 2010 Six Nations, a day after the player finally apologised for a false assault claim that has compromised his career.

Bastareaud on Wednesday apologised publicly for the first time four months after falsely claiming he had been assaulted by several men in Wellington during a tour of New Zealand.

However Lievremont said the affair could have been handled better, ultimately to Bastareaud's benefit, as he left the Stade Francais centre out of his squad to face South Africa on November 13.

Lievremont said he had no choice but to leave Bastareaud out, but that he would gradually come into the reckoning for his Six Nations squad next year.

Now set to miss the spring tests, Bastareaud may have to wait till February 7, 2010, when France open their campaign in Scotland.

"It's good that he has done this (apologised). It's come too late for him to be considered for selection for the autumn tests but as far as I'm concerned he has a chance of being in the squad for the tournament," said Lievremont.

In the best case scenario I would have liked his club president, or the federation, to make him face the media very early on. If that had been done there's a good chance we would no longer be speaking about this issue now."

The French Rugby Federation (FFR) sentenced Bastareaud to carry out community service as a punishment and he went to hospital suffering from psychological problems, but has since resumed playing for Stade.

While Lievremont has stayed loyal with most of the squad that finished third in the 2009 Six Nations, he has also called up three debutants in third row forwards Antoine Burban and Alexandre Lapandry and winger Benjamin Fall.

France squad
Backs: Julien Dupuy (Stade Francais), Morgan Parra (Clermont), Frederic Michalak (Toulouse), Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Maxime Mermoz (Perpignan), Yann David (Toulouse), David Marty (Perpignan), Cedric Heymans (Toulouse), Benjamin Fall (Bayonne), Vincent Clerc (Touloluse), Maxime Medard (Toulouse), Damien Traille (Biarritz).

Forwards: Fabien Barcella (Biarritz), Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), William Servat (Toulouse), Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Franais), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Lionel Nallet (Racing Metro), Romain Millo-Chluski (Toulouse), Sebastien Chabal (Racing Metro), Pascal Pape (Stade Franais), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz), Louis Picamoles (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), Antoine Burban (Stade Francais), Alexandre Lapandry (Clermont)