XV of France: Penaud and Ntamack in the list of protected Blues, not Barré

The France XV staff revealed this Monday the list of 19 players exempted from the Top 14 next weekend in view of Ireland-France, on March 8 in Dublin during the ^4th day of the Six Nations Tournament.

14 of the 15 starters on Sunday in Rome are among those protected players, the only one not on that list is Stade Français full-back Léo Barré . The Parisian needs to play – he was out for three weeks with concussion before his winning return to Italy and, perhaps, the Pink Soldiers' staff pleaded to have him available for the crucial reception of Section Paloise, Saturday in the opening of the ^18th day of the Top 14.

14 starters therefore, plus Damian Penaud, who had been left out for the trip to Rome, Romain Ntamack, suspension served, as well as Cyril Baille and Oscar Jégou, substitutes at the Stadio Olimpico.

Bordeaux fly-half Matthieu Jalibert is not on this list. This means that he could be selected by the UBB manager on Sunday evening for the reception of Clermont. A scenario that would most likely exclude him from the list of 42 players selected to prepare for the clash in Dublin.

These 19 players will join Marcoussis on Friday, for a public training session on Saturday at the CNR. The rest of the group will join Essonne on Sunday or Monday depending on their Top 14 schedule.

The 19 protected players : Dorian ALDGHERI, Grégory ALLDRITT, Uini ATONIO, Cyril BAILLE, Paul BOUDEHENT, François CROS, Thibaud FLAMENT, Jean-Baptiste GROS, Mickaël GUILLARD, Oscar JÉGOU, Julien MARCHAND, Peato MAUVAKA, Pierre-Louis BARASSI, Louis BIELLE-BIARREY, Antoine DUPONT, Yoram MOEFANA, Romain NTAMACK, Damian PENAUD, Thomas RAMOS.