By Jason Harris
March 27 2003

Saracens' Thomas Castaignede has been retained in an unchanged France side to face Wales at Stade de France and wins his 35th cap in Paris on Saturday 29 March. Castaignede keeps his place at outside cenrte but believes that his try against Italy may not be the reason for his inclusion.

"I was pleased with my try, of course, but there's more to it than that. For Bernard Laporte [France coach] the thing that really matters is that every player has to stick within the game- plan. The individual comes second to the collective." he said in his weekly Guardian newspaper column.

"So, even if I see things I'd like to do, I try to do what is asked of me as a team member. As for the try, I spotted a minute hole big enough for a mouse and ran like a rabbit. Luckily there were no hunters around."


France team:

Clement Poitrenaud (Stade Toulousain); Aurelien Rougerie (Montferrand), Thomas Castaignede (Saracens), Damien Traille (Pau), Xavier Garbajosa (Stade Toulousain); Frederic Michalak (Stade Toulousain), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz); Jean-Jacques Crenca (Agen), Raphael Ibanez (Castres), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Français), Fabien Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), Olivier Brouzet (Montferrand), Serge Betsen (Biarritz), Olivier Magne (Montferrand), Imanol Harinordoquy (Pau).