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Two leave France's Six Nations squad due to injury

France coach Marc Lievremont has injury concerns © Getty Images

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France's injury problems have intensified with the news that Fulgence Ouedraogo and Sylvain Marconnet have been replaced by Alexandre Lapandry and Clement Baiocco respectively.

Montpellier flanker Ouedraogo was forced to withdraw from the squad to face Wales due to a calf injury with Lapandry, who made his only international appearance against Samoa last November, taking his place. Marconnet pulled out last night and was replaced today by the uncapped Racing Metro prop fro Friday's trip to Cardiff.

France have had their fair share of disruption since the beginning of the tournament. Marc Lievremont was forced to bring in new wingers after Aurelien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall were hurt in the opening win over Scotland and both their replacements, Vincent Clerc and Alexis Palisson, went off with injuries during last Saturday's victory over Ireland.

The France boss hailed his country's strength in depth following their impressive 33-10 win over last year's grand-slam champions and that is set to be tested once again.

Elsewhere, England's Toby Flood focused on the result, not his impressive personal performance, after Leicester Tigers beat Gloucester 33-11 to stay top of the Guinness Premiership. Flood kicked four penalties and three conversions as well as playing his part in a couple of tries and controlling matters from the fly-half position.

"We got a great result and that is all that matters at this time of the season. We would like to have played better and won with more authority," said Flood. "The pack went very well and we did some all right stuff but I think the large part of it was the turnover count. There were a lot of mistakes. It was one of those games where both sides wanted to have a crack."

Leicester head coach Richard Cockerill was happy enough with his team's display, adding, "I think we played a little too much in our own half in the first period but we tried to play and put ourselves under pressure. Overall, I'm very pleased. The boys did some good things and it's a good result."

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