{"id":8422,"date":"2026-02-21T00:50:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/france-change-second-row-pairing-for-italy-match\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:50:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:20:02","slug":"france-change-second-row-pairing-for-italy-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/france-change-second-row-pairing-for-italy-match\/","title":{"rendered":"France change second-row pairing for Italy match"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published57 minutes ago<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#comments\">6 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Grand-Slam-chasing France have changed their second-row partnership for the Six Nations match against Italy in Lille.<\/p>\n<p>Toulouse locks Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou replace Charles Ollivon and Mickael Guillard in the only changes to France&#x27;s XV from <a href=\"\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cddn92m8nd5o\">their 54-12 win over Wales<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Flament and Meafou featured off the bench at the Principality Stadium, but Ollivon and Guillard are named as replacements for Sunday&#x27;s fixture (15:10 GMT kick-off).<\/p>\n<p>Flament had missed France&#x27;s opening victory against Ireland <a href=\"\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cx2gg01rx41o\">because it clashed with his wife&#x27;s fertility treatment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Fabien Brau-Boirie, 20, who made his France debut last week, is set to retain his place in the centres.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, France-born Ange Capuozzo is set to return for Italy at full-back having missed the first two matches of this year&#x27;s tournament with a fractured finger.<\/p>\n<p>He is set to be the only change for Gonzalo Quesada&#x27;s side, who beat Scotland 18-15 in their opening fixture before a 20-13 loss to Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Italy faced France in Lille two years ago in a match which ended in a 13-13 draw with Azzurri fly-half Paolo Garbisi missing a penalty to win the Test. However, Les Bleus <a href=\"\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c201wj3y27lo\">thrashed Italy in Rome<\/a> last year 73-24.<\/p>\n<h2>Line-ups<\/h2>\n<p>France: Ramos; Attissogbe, Gailleton, Brau-Boirie, Bielle-Biarrey; Jalibert, Dupont (capt); Gros, Marchand, Aldegheri, Flament, Meafou, Cros, Jegou, Jelonch.<\/p>\n<p>Replacements: Mauvaka, Neti, Colombe, Ollivon, Guillard, Nouchi, Serin, Barassi.<\/p>\n<p>Italy: Fischetti; Lynagh, Menoncello, Marin; Ioane; P Garbisi, Fusco; Fischetti, Nicotera, Ferrari, N Cannone, Zambonin, Lamaro (capt), Zuliani, L Cannone.<\/p>\n<p>Replacements: Dimcheff, Spagnolo, Zilocchi, Ruzza, Favretto, Odiase, Garbisi, Odogwu.<\/p>\n<p>Referee: Karl Dickson (Eng)<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Aus), Jordan Way (Aus)<\/p>\n<p>Television match official: Ian Tempest (Eng)<\/p>\n<p>Foul play review officer: Richard Kelly (NZ)<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/rugby-union\">Rugby Union<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sounds\/series\/p0kwktkp\">\n<p>Listen: Sport&#x27;s Strangest Crimes &#8211; Bloodgate<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sounds\/brand\/p04q5p2n\">\n<p>Listen to the latest Rugby Union Weekly podcast<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France change second-row pairing for Italy matchImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Thibaud Flament made his France debut in 2021Published57 minutes ago6 CommentsGrand-Slam-chasing France have ch&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}