Coach says new France team is still fragile

By Jean-Paul Couret

PARIS (Reuters) - France coach Marc Lievremont said on Friday that the win against Scotland had validated his choice of playing style and players but warned that his new set-up was still fragile.

"For the time being, we are happy," he told a news conference on the eve of the Six Nations match against Ireland at the Stade de France (4 p.m. British time).

"We only have a week or so behind us. We know that we have a lot of work to do and that everything is still extremely fragile. It's not because we won our first game that we'll take the easy option," he added.

The French coach has reshuffled his Murrayfield starting line-up, changing half his pack with Dimitri Szarzewski, Nicolas Mas, Arnaud Mela and Julien Bonnaire taking over from William Servat, Julien Brugnaut, Loc Jacquet and Elvis Vermeulen.

He has also restored David Skrela at flyhalf at the expense of 21-year-old Francois Trinh-Duc.

He said these changes did not mean that he was planning to drop the attacking game which led his team to overcome Scotland by three tries to none.

Assistant coach Didier Retiere said the players had the right to make mistakes.

"Errors must not be a brake. They should be the engine which will drive us to improve," Retiere said.