Power: Mathieu Bastareaud
France coach Philippe Saint-André has made three changes to his starting XV to play Scotland, with Mathieu Bastareaud starting in midfield.
Two more changes see young Perpignan lock Sebastien Vahaamahina win a first start to partner Yoann Maestri in the engine room, with Castres forward Antonie Claassen at blindside flanker.
The South African-born forward makes his first start for Les Bleus following two appearances off the bench against England and Ireland.
Those changes mean that Christophe Samson and Yannick Nyanga drop to the bench, whilst either Florian Fritz or Toulouse star Gael Fickou will fill the 23 jersey.
Fritz is a doubt because of a foot injury and has been given till Friday to prove his fitness.
France come into their final fixture against Scotland bottom of the Six Nations table, with three losses and one draw to their name.
France: 15 Yoann Huget, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Maxime Médard, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Antonie Claassen, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Luc Ducalcon, 19 Christophe Samson, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Florian Fritz or Gael Fickou.
Date: Saturday, 16 March
Venue: Stade de France, Paris
Kick-off: 22:00 local (20:00 GMT)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland), Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
Television match official: Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Comments
les_bleus says...
PSA is destroying our No 10 options. Destroying Trinh-Duc as he does not use hime while Michalak is not performing well. The message is "you are not good enough even when the others are nuls". Destroying Michalak as he basically tells him "no matter what you'll get the start".
Michalak is not to blame for the poor rugby played by France, but he is not on form and PSA has not hesitated to make changes at other posts, except the #10 jersey (with the exception against England but there Trinh-Duc was replaced very early despite playing well).
Posted 18:33 14th March 2013
jaycee_111 says...
It says 9pm ko on my ticket not 10pm might want to change your ko times above
Posted 10:28 14th March 2013
craigster99 says...
Hopefully Michalak and Parra have another off day, and Sean Lamont will be more than a match for Bastareaud.
Posted 09:58 14th March 2013
mlbp says...
Let's see if France can salvage some pride after a horrendous tournament.
I think that the 6 nations tournament is becoming more and more of a nuisance for the French as years go by. Actually, international rugby looks like a bit of a bother for them. The end of year tour is poor because some players can't join it as they are still playing the finals of the Top14, and the ones that can are carrying so many knocks or have so little in their tanks that there's nothing for the management to try or test or experiment.
The only good moment for the French to play test matches is in November when the players are still healthy. February is too far into the season for any decent form to show.
It looked at the beginning of the tournament as if the players were not into the mood of playing for their country and that showed against Italy. Then it was all a snowballing effect against Wales, as the team didn't show any inventiveness or energy. After that, you have to take into account the errors by the coaches when substituting the full front row and Nyanga against England (in my opinion that is what cost France most of the result, more than bringing on Michalak; France was competing up front but Debaty and Ducalcon offered nothing and England was dominant and got good ball and shut France down). This shows Saint Andre was lost.
Against Ireland it was the same: a team without confidence and suffering lack of a convincing game plan for the attrocious conditions.
The strongest force in the universe can be inertia. France, as Wales did, seems to have started a downward spiral. Wales were not as bad (overrated maybe they were, but not so bad either). France were not so good in November and now they are not so bad. It's time to stop the downward movement and stop that inertial spin. Scotland can be the team against which they can regain their mojo.
Posted 09:28 14th March 2013
mlbp says...
Nyanga to the bench? He may have been the most consistent player for France this tournament...
Posted 09:16 14th March 2013