Mathieu Bastareaud will start for Toulon against Cardiff Blues in Round 5 of the Heineken Cup after being recalled to the France squad.
Bastareaud will partner Maxime Mermoz in the centres with Jonny Wilkinson named at fly-half alongside Frederic Michalak.
Chris Masoe starts ahead of Joe van Niekerk at number eight, with former England lock Nick Kennedy partnering Jocelino Suta in the second row.
Gethin Jenkins misses the fixture against his old side due to a calf injury, meaning that with Andrew Sheridan also absent Xavier Chiocci gets the start at loosehead prop with Florian Fresia named on the bench.
Meanwhile, Leigh Halfpenny returns for Cardiff Blues who have made four changes.
There are three changes in the backs with Halfpenny starting at full-back in place of Jason Tovey. Gavin Evans has recovered from a back injury and Alex Cuthbert from a facial injury to start in the back line in place of Owen Williams and Richard Smith.
There is only one change in the forwards with James Down in instead of Bradley Davies who remains at home with his partner, who is expected to give birth to their first child over the weekend.
"Physically we are going into the Toulon match in the best shape we have been in as a group," said Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby Phil Davies.
"The progress we have made from when we started back in June is quite staggering. I am confident, especially after the good results of the last few games that we are in the best place to be going out to face the Top 14 side."
"We need to go out there and make sure we front up physically and when we have the ball we get over the gain line."
The teams:
Toulon: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Rudi Wulf, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Frederic Michalak, 8 Chris Masoe, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Pierrick Gunther, 5 Nick Kennedy, 4 Jocelino Suta, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Jean-Charles Orioli, 1 Xavier Chiocci.
Replacements: 16 Sebastien Bruno, 17 Florian Fresia, 18 Simon Shaw, 19 Davit Kubriashvili, 20 Joe van Niekerk, 21 Matt Giteau, 22 David Smith, 23 Nicolas Durand.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Gavin Evans, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Harry Robinson, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Lewis Jones, 8 Robin Copeland, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Josh Navidi, 5 Lou Reed, 4 James Down, 3 Benoit Bourrust, 2 Rhys Williams, 1 Sam Hobbs
Replacements: 16 Kristian Dacey, 17 Nathan Trevett, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Macauley Cook, 20 Luke Hamilton, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Ceri Sweeney, 23 Owen Williams,
Date: Saturday, January 12
Venue: Stade Félix Mayol
Kick-off: 14.35 local (13.35 GMT)
Referee: JP Doyle (England)
Comments
carpelone says...
Frooschman
Correct. Is not this hilarious? Wish the dog of my in-laws do the same with their passports.
Posted 10:03 12th January 2013
TVaddict says...
@Frooschman
Yes, and it was hilarious!
Posted 23:55 11th January 2013
melkdave says...
You have to say Toulon should win this match hansomely,just to much power and class imo.Cardiff apart from Halfpenny ,kicking a few pens ,you just dont see scoring at all .
Posted 21:30 11th January 2013
Frooschman says...
Anyone else see that the reason Tovey is out of the squad is because his dog ate his passport!
Posted 16:29 11th January 2013
TVaddict says...
I'm expecting a massive performance for Toulon. Losing at home last week won't be sitting easy with them and I can see a 20 points and up margin for this match. Toulon should spend the first half punishing Cardiff up front, with Wilkinson putting them in the right areas of the pitch, then bring on the like of Giteau and Smith to up the pace and attack from all sides.
Posted 14:55 11th January 2013
sirtidychris says...
Great to see the blues with the welsh stalwarts starting (Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert, Jamie Roberts, Sam Warburton) hopefully they can stay fit and find some form for the SN. Rhys Patchell is a name being mentioned alot at the moment will be interesting to see how he does against sir johny and his band of international mercenaries.
Posted 12:49 11th January 2013