France's rugby officials, their faces burgundy-red at the prospect of Saturday's international against England being postponed because of a frozen solid Stade de France pitch, have turned to a one-time English county cricketer to put the covers on.

Nigel Felton, a former Somerset and Northamptonshire opener, was summoned to the new high-tech stadium yesterday by the consortium which owns the £270 million venue, which will host this summer's World Cup football final, but which last night had four inches of frost on its pitch which has no undersoil heating.

Felton now manages a Northampton-based company, Sport and Stadia Services, which helps supply pitch covers.

The televised game is an 80,000 sell-out and a postponement of this, the first Five Nations championship match at the ground, would bring as much scorn on French rugby as that poured on Jamaica's cricketing authorities six days ago.

Felton acknowledged: "There is no magic cure here. I could probably dine out at the Paris Ritz forever if we succeed, but alternatively the guillotine could fall on me if we don't."

The special canvas covers were shipped out by lorry earlier yesterday. Hot air will be blown through the two covers which were being laid last night. Felton is part of a team of 10 who include the Northampton groundsman David Powell, a former England prop who has played twice against the French, and an electrical engineer Clive Abrahams.

It was also suggested yesterday that the artificial measures being used to thaw the pitch could have a detrimental, long-term effect on the pitch.

The stadium's managing consortium said the complex system of hot air blowers, piping and special covers could destroy the newly-laid turf, meaning it will have to be replaced before the football World Cup finals in June.

"It's true that the treatment we are using will damage the ecosystem of the grass," the consortium's director general Gaetan Desruelles told the L'Equipe newspaper. "The worst case scenario is that the turf becomes unusable, and then we would have to replace it. That would cost a million francs and couldn't be done before the spring."