PARIS (Reuters) -Baptiste Serin and Brice Dulin made a long-awaited comeback with Les Bleus when they were named by coach Fabien Galthie in the France 42-man preliminary squad for the Rugby World Cup on Wednesday.
Scrumhalf Serin and fullback Dulin, who have not played for France in over two years, will now hope to make the final cut in late August, when the staff trims the squad down to 33 men for the Sept. 8-Oct. 28 tournament on home soil.
Galthie opted to leave out Australian-born lock Emmanuel Meafou, who has yet to be made eligible to play for France by World Rugby and sustained an injury in the French Top 14 final with Toulouse against La Rochelle last Saturday.
As expected, two promising debutants were called up with centre Emilien Gailleton and winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey named in the squad that will start a training camp in Monaco on July 3.
The list will be cut down to 33 on Aug. 21.
France, who will kick off their World Cup campaign against New Zealand in the opening game of the tournament, will face Scotland on Aug. 5 and 12, Fiji on Aug. 19 and Australia on Aug. 26 in warm-up games.
Squad:
Left props: Cyril Baille (Toulouse), Jean-Baptiste Gros (Toulon), Reda Wardi (La Rochelle)
Hookers: Pierre Bourgarit (La Rochelle), Julien Marchand (Toulouse), Peato Mauvaka (Toulouse)
Right props: Uini Atonio (La Rochelle), Dorian Aldegheri (Toulouse), Thomas Laclayat (Racing), Demba Bamba (Lyon)
Locks: Bastien Chalureau (Montpellier), Thibaud Flament (Toulouse), Romain Taofifenua (Lyon), Paul Willemse (Montpellier), Cameron Woki (Racing), Florian Verhaeghe (Montpellier)
Flankers: Grégory Alldritt (La Rochelle), Paul Boudehent (La Rochelle), François Cros (Toulouse), Sekou Macalou (Stade Français), Charles Ollivon (Toulon), Yoan Tanga (La Rochelle), Dylan Cretin (Lyon)
Scrumhalves: Antoine Dupont (Toulouse), Maxime Lucu (Bordeaux-Begles), Baptiste Couilloud (Lyon), Baptiste Serin (Toulon)
Flyhalves: Antoine Hastoy (La Rochelle), Matthieu Jalibert (Bordeaux-Begles), Romain Ntamack (Toulouse)
Centres : Jonathan Danty (La Rochelle), Gael Fickou (Racing), Yoram Moefana (Bordeaux-Bègles), Emilien Gailleton (Pau), Arthur Vincent (Montpellier)
Wingers: Louis Bielle-Biarrey (Bordeaux-Begles), Ethan Dumortier (Lyon), Damian Penaud (Bordeaux-Begles), Gabin Villière (Toulon)
Fullbacks: Brice Dulin (La Rochelle), Melvyn Jaminet (Toulouse), Thomas Ramos (Toulouse).
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Alex Richardson and Christian Radnedge)
