Mathieu Bastareaud to lead Les Bleus in Cardiff
Mathieu Bastareaud will captain France in the absence of the injured Guilhem Guirado when Les Bleus take on Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.
Bastareaud missed the first two games of this year’s Championship as France slipped to defeats to both Ireland and Scotland.
But his return to the starting XV has coincided with a French revival that has seen them beat both Italy and England in back-to-back rounds.
Two of the three changes this weekend for France come in the front row where Adrien Pelissie comes in at hooker for Guirado while Cedate Gomes Sa replaces Rabah Slimani at tighthead prop.
And in the backline, Gael Fickou is brought onto the wing with Benjamin Fall moving to full-back and Hugo Bonneval dropping out of the matchday 23.
That means that Remy Grosso remains the left winger while Bastareaud and Geoffrey Doumayrou are the midfield pairing again.
Francois Trinh-Duc and Maxime Machenaud are the halfbacks with Marco Tauleigne at number eight and Yacouba Camara and Wenceslas Lauret at flanker.
The second row of Paul Gabrillagues and Sebastien Vahaamahina is unchanged while Jefferson Poirot is the sole survivor in the front row from Le Crunch.
On the bench, Camille Chat is the cover at hooker while Bernard Le Roux and Mathieu Babillot are the back five cover in the pack, the number 23 shirt goes to Geoffrey Palis.
France: 15 Benjamin Fall, 14 Gael Fickou, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud (c), 12 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 11 Remy Grosso, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Marco Tauleigne, 7 Wenceslas Lauret, 6 Yacouba Camara, 5 Paul Gabrillagues, 4 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 3 Cedate Gomes Sa, 2 Adrien Pelissie, 1 Jefferson Poirot
Replacements: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Dany Priso, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Bernard Le Roux, 20 Mathieu Babillot, 21 Baptiste Couilloud, 22 Lionel Beauxis, 23 Geoffrey Palis
Date: Saturday, March 17
Venue: Principality Stadium
Kick-off: 17:00 GMT
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Luke Pearce (England)
TMO George Ayoub (Australia)