France try to not make a pig's ear of it against Canada

MILTON KEYNES, England (Reuters) - Piglet or wild boar? France will be hoping to see the calmer and cuddlier side of Philippe Saint-Andre if they can beat Canada on Thursday and pick up their third Rugby World Cup Pool D victory. Saint-Andre was fondly known as "Le Goret" (piglet) as a player but showed he has an angrier side when, gesticulating and screaming, he gave his chastened squad a halftime dressing-down against Romania in their last game. France ran out comfortable 38-11 winners to follow up their opening success over Italy but Saint-Andre will want an all-round improvement as they build-up to a potential group decider against Ireland next weekend. Not that Saint-Andre will be taking winless Canada lightly, he was captain when Les Bleus were beaten 18-16 by the Canucks 21 years ago. Saint-Andre has shuffled his squad once again, making 12 changes to his starting side and retaining only Brice Dulin, Wesley Fofana and Bernard Le Roux from the Romania game. France are expecting big things from Castres wing Remy Grosso who will make his test debut after being called into the squad to replace the injured Yoann Huget. "I don’t know if you watched the Top 14 last season but Remy was pretty much the best wing. He had a strong finish to the season and was one of the key players in the Top 14," said fullback Scott Spedding. Canada won plenty of plaudits for their performance in going down 23-18 to Italy on Saturday, dominating for long periods and scoring one of the tries of the tournament through DTH van der Merwe. Coach Kieran Crowley has made six changes, four in the pack and two in the backline where Phil Mack starts at scrumhalf in place of Jamie Mackenzie and Nick Blevins takes over at centre from Connor Braid. (Reporting by Justin Palmer, editing by Nick Mulvenney)