Wallabies try to get maul rolling

Greg Growden and Rupert Guinness | June 25, 2009


THE Wallabies forwards are bracing, even hoping, for a heated training session today so they will be primed for the marauding French rolling maul during Saturday night's Test at ANZ Stadium.

Wallabies hooker Stephen Moore yesterday said the team was bracing for France to focus their play around the rolling maul, after it proved so successful against the All Blacks.

The Wallabies pack have focused much of their recent training working on ways to nullify the driving maul, which has raised the level of aggression at recent practices.

"I thought we did pretty well to nullify the rolling maul against Italy, but France do it a lot better. So it's going to take a big effort to stop that," Moore said.

"We've had to dedicate more time to it at training and it revolves around getting in there early and just being really physical. We'll be doing that again at training tomorrow.

"It gets very heated at training, but that's a good part of our preparation. You know on Thursday if there's a bit of niggle in the session and guys are getting stuck into it, you're ready to go."

Have any punches been thrown? "Not so far this year. There has been in the past. I'm sure it's only around the corner. I think it's great for that to happen at training. If you're in the defensive pack, you really want to get one over the guy on the other side. It's a good sign that we're ready for Saturday if that occurs."

The French are remaining coy about how much they will use the rolling maul.
"It's always a problem of uncertainty. If the other team is ready for you in the mauling then it can be very difficult," French forwards coach Didier Retiere said yesterday.

"It's more of a question of balance in your game and [whether you] play a little bit forward or maybe a bit wider with the backs and [about making] adjustment during the game."

The French yesterday announced seven personnel changes and three positional switches to their starting team that lost 14-10 to the All Blacks in Wellington last Saturday.

Dimitri Szarzewski has regained the No.2 strip from William Servat; tight-head prop Sylvain Marconnet will start for Nicolas Mas; Pascal Pape replaces injured Sebastien Chabal in the second row, while Julien Puricelli gets his chance at No.8 for the sidelined Louis Picamoles.

The most intriguing change is at No.9 and No.10 with the fancied combination of Julien Dupuy and Francois Trinh-Duc missing out for Dimitri Yachvili at No.9 and Lionel Beauxis at No.10.

The last new face is Florian Fritz at outside centre for Maxime Mermoz who has moved to inside centre. In turn, Damien Traille has switched from No. 12 to fullback in readiness for the Wallabies' kicking game and Maxime Medard moves from No. 14 to the wing for Vincent Clerc.

For Beauxis, 23 and with 14 Test caps, his selection is a huge opportunity to re-establish his star rating from the 2007 World Cup where he excelled in the No.10 strip in France's upset quarter-final win against the All Blacks at Cardiff. But after starting in the losing semi-final against England and third-place match against Argentina, a back injury had him miss all of last year.

His last Test was against Scotland in this year's Six Nations and his place in this French tour only came when David Skrela withdrew injured

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