Lievremont concerned about All Blacks

France coach Marc Lievremont on Sunday warned that his side’s recent progress could “go up in smoke” with defeat in their year-ending match against New Zealand in Marseille next weekend.

France will go into the match on the back of a 43-5 thrashing of Samoa and a superb 20-13 victory over world champions South Africa, but Lievremont remains cautious.

Mermoz’s Perpignan team-mate Guilhem Guirado, Stade Francais’s Pascal Pape, Clermont’s Alexandre Lapandry and Yann David of Toulouse are the men to make way.

Injuries to back-row forwards Imanol Harinordoquy and Louis Picamoles mean they both miss the cut, as does Toulouse wing Cedric Heymans.

France enjoyed a historic 27-22 win over the All Blacks in Dunedin during their summer tour in June, before going down 14-10 in Wellington.

“Aside from the fact that conditions will favour us because we’re playing in front of our own fans, from what I’ve seen of the All Blacks they’ve rediscovered a lot of stability,” said Lievremont.

“They’re definitely much better than the New Zealand team we beat in June.”

The crushing victory over Samoa on Saturday saw fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc assume a starring role, setting up Yannick Jauzion for a first-half try with a cunning kick and touching down himself twice in the second period.

The Montpellier man had been criticised for a lack of success with his kicking in the victory over South Africa and he was delighted by his performance against the islanders.

“I’m pretty pleased with my game: the rotation worked well, we had good links between the forwards and the three-quarters, a good kicking game, a good defence,” he said.

“He (Trinh-Duc) will have to prove that he’s at the level of the best players and particularly on Saturday against the authority on the subject, Dan Carter,” said Lievremont.