France coach Marc Lievremont revealed Friday that he was more worried by the reception of the home crowd in the heartland of French rugby of Toulouse than the match against world champions South Africa next week.

France take on the Springboks on November 13 in Toulouse, and Lievremont on Friday issued a rallying call for the home fans "to give their undivided support to the French team."

"I hope that the players will do what they need to win over the public and I hope that the Toulouse fans will be really behind the French team," insisted Lievremont.

"They're a demanding audience, who are used to winning, but that's the case throughout the southwest, in Biarritz, in Dax."

The last match France played in Toulouse against one of the world's elite sides was on November 11, 1995 when they beat New Zealand 22-15.

Since then France have beaten Fiji 28-19 there in the 1999 World Cup, Tonga 43-8 in a Test match in November 2005, and Namibia 87-10 in a pool match for the 2007 World Cup.

The choice of Toulouse for such a high profile game was not a popular one.

The match had initally been slated for Stade de France but was moved to Toulouse after the French football federation reserved the Paris stadium in the case of a play-off for the 2010 World Cup.

The French football team will however play their World Cup play-off against Ireland on November 14 in Dublin and November 18 in Stade de France.

The rugby team will play Samoa on November 21 in Stade de France with the third tier closed off, reducing the capacity to 54,168 places.

"In principle playing matches in different locations is really good," said Lievremont. "In this case it would have been good to play South Africa in the Stade de France. With Samoa I think we could have had a sell-out in Toulouse."

AFP

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