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Sione Lauaki, the big All Black No.8, starts his new career as a French rugby player on the bench for Clermont Auvergne in their friendly match against Bourgoin in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday night.

Clermont are the reigning Top 14 champions. For this match they are without Brock James and Jason White who are well on the way back from injury and lock Thibault Privat who is suspended. Also missing are captain Aurélien Rougerie, Morgan Parra, Julien Malzieu, Julien Pierre, Martín Scelzo and Mario Ledesma.

Apart from Lauaki who has moved from the Chiefs, other new faces in the side are hooker Ti'i Paulo from the Crusaders, young lock Baptiste Hézard, teenager Jean-Marcellin Buttin, Kini Murimurivalu, a 20-year-old from Fiji, and Fijian teenager Noa Nakaitaci.

The Clermont team for the friendly: 15 Anthony Floch, 14 Napolioni Nalaga, 13 Wesley Fofana, 12 Benoît Baby, 11 Brent Russell, 10 Tasesa Lavea, 9 Kevin Senio, 8 Elvis Vermeulen, 7 Alexandre Lapandry, 6 Alexandre Audebert, 5 Loïc Jacquet, 4 Baptiste Hézard,  3 Clément Ric, 2 Paulo, 1 Lionel Faure.
Replacements from: Davit Zirakashvili, Vincent Debaty, Jamie Cudmore, Julien Bardy, Sione Lauaki, Ludovic Radosavljevic, Jean-Marcellin Buttin, Marius Joubert, Kini Murimurivalu, Noa Nakaitaci.