Positional change for Bastareaud? – Huge Rugby News

Positional changes seem all the rage this 6 Nations campaign. Eddie Jones chatted about playing Jack Nowell at 7 and Joe Schmidt had Robbie Henshaw run out at 15.

Now former French International Thomas Castaignede believes that Bastareaud needs to switch it up to play at International level.

Thomas Castaignede, who was speaking to RugbyPass believes Mathieu Bastareaud could launch a new international career at No.8 for France, insisting the Toulon centre is now too slow to nail down a place in the youthful French backline.

“I really like Mathieu and he is a really good guy, but for me he is not a centre for France – he is a backrow.

“To play the modern game you need quick guys in the backs and as a No8, Bastareaud could be even better than Louis Picamoles in this position. Mentally it will be difficult for Bastareaud to accept this kind of move but he would be tremendous and he would help the French team. And, we need him.

“Rugby has changed massively and if you want to play the modern game with the ball in play for more than 40 minutes the you need players who can adapt. As a centre Bastareaud is running slower than the other guys, but he would be faster than other back row players so use that strength. At La Rochelle, Levani Botia plays centre and flanker but for me Bastareaud is a No.8 and while it could difficult to move position, if you bring value to the team then you can be massive as an impact player.”

At 120kg there certainly isn’t many other centres playing on the International stage carrying that weight around. Have a look below at some of his best bits at Centre.

The former Saracen also spoke about France v England this weekend;

“I am really scared for Sunday at Twickenham. We do have talented players and Toulouse did beat Leinster but the problem is that we have lost our confidence, philosophy and leadership at international level and it is a massive mess. It is frustrating and scary because on Sunday if we don’t show up then it could be even worse.

“In the first half against Wales the level was very good even thought it was the worst half for Wales in a very long time. In the second half Wales were tremendous and we gave them the game without doing anything fantastic. England can create great things with some really talented and skilful players with all different kind of threats.

“Of course you never know with France and we cannot be as bad as we have shown in the last few games.”