It is bad news to hear that Houles is out, but in some irony, it could work out being a blessing for the French. With Houles out, it could pave the way for Fabien Estabenz (sp?) to make the centre position his own. Estabenez, who scored 13 tries in 3 games at the Med. Cup, probably would have been 2nd behind Houles and Teddy Saddoui. This may be the chance he needed to break into the test side on a more permenent basis.
Obviously it is not ideal to have an injury to a player like Houles, but I just have the feeling we could witness some good out of it. It is definitely not all doom and gloom for the French and I think they will do extremely well in the Euro Nations tournament.