AFP/Marseille

The All Blacks are braced for what should be a vociferous “football-like” crowd at the Stade Velodrome when they face France today in their last rugby Test of the season.
The 60,000-seater Velodrome is home to top-flight French club Olympique Marseille, winners of the inaugural Champions League in 1993 and currently involved in this season’s competition for the 11th time. The Marseille fans are known for being among the most passionate in France, with the two end stands in particular creating a blistering atmosphere with their choreographed chanting amid smoke from discharged flares.
“The guys are pretty excited,” said skipper Richie McCaw when asked about playing at the Velodrome, scene of a 42-33 victory for France when the two teams last met there in 2000.
“We’ve heard the stories about what it’s like at the football matches here - something quite unreal. I imagine it will be a similar sort of crowd experience.”
McCaw said that assistant coach Wayne Smith had “said what it’s like when they played here in 2000... a typical football crowd, pretty passsionate and loud and will lift the French team “But it’s something to be excited about”.
He added: “New Zealand’s pretty unique in the fact that that the  crowd is a blur, a bit far away (because the stands are that bit further back from the pitch), but standing in a line-out here I’d imagine you can actually hear the odd voice. “You learn to put that to the background when it becomes noisy:  you feel like you’re on your own when you can’t hear what the fellah next to you is saying.” The All Blacks have notched up three wins from three on the European leg of their autumn tour, beating Wales (19-12), Italy (20-6) and England (19-6), and McCaw said the focus was now on a fourth victory and a rest. “It adds a bit of edge (playing France in Marseille),” he said.
“There’s a wee bit of history with this place but it steels our boys up a bit. You’ve just got to go out and meet whatever they bring. “We’ve got to start well, there’s no doubt about that. If you do that, it can quieten down the crowd.”
WALES SKIPPER JONES OUT OF AUSSIE CLASH
In Cardiff, Wales captain Ryan Jones has been forced to pull out of today’s Test against Australia because of a back injury. Jones will be replaced at number eight by Andy Powell, who switches from blindside flanker with Dan Lydiate coming off the bench to win his second cap.
Cardiff prop Gethin Jenkins will captain the side and Lydiate’s place on the bench is taken by Sam Warburton. Jenkins got the nod as stand-in skipper ahead of a number of other experienced campaigners, including Martyn Williams, Alun-Wyn Jones and Stephen Jones.
Fixtures: France v New Zealand; Ireland v South Africa;  Italy v Samoa;  Scotland v Argentina; Wales v Australia.