France v England:France coach Marc Lievremont has made just one change to his side to face England on Saturday with Mathieu Bastareaud returning at centre in place of David Marty.
Bastareaud started Sunday’s defeat of Italy on the bench but was today named in the starting XV for the clash at the Stade de France which is vital to their hopes of clinching the Six Nations title.
Les Bleus currently top the table, two points clear of Ireland who meet Scotland in Dublin.
Marty started against the Azzurri as Bastareaud had failed to fully recover from an ankle injury sustained on club duty for Stade Francais but showed he was an able replacement with two tries in France’s 46-20 victory.
But Lievremont has opted for 21-year-old Bastareaud, who has eight caps to his name, for his physicality.
"David performed well against Italy but we didn't forget Mathieu's very good performances in the first games of the championship," coach Marc Lievremeont told a news conference.
"With rather lightweight wings and fullback, we decided to give more density to the middle of our backline."
Lievremont said the selectors also discussed the possibility of promoting Julien Malzieu on the right wing but finally decided to retain Marc Andreu, who celebrated his first full cap with a try against Italy.
"We went for Marc because he is punchy and has a lot of dynamism and aggression in defence," Lievremont said.
The selectors, however, did not consider giving Sebastien Chabal a first start of the season secondrow.
"There was no discussion about that. We are very happy with the pair of Lionel Nallet and Julien Pierre and Sebastien's capability of boosting the team when he comes on is a bonus," said forwards coach Didier Retiere.
Lievremont added that Chabal and the other replacements would play a particularly important part in Saturday's game.
"We are expecting a real clash and a summit in terms of commitment and ferocity," he said. "The England team are probably hurt but they have the players to punish us with their extremely direct game and they also have powerful and fast backs who can hit us on turnovers."
France (v England):C Poitrenaud (Toulouse); M Andreu (Castres), M Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), A Palisson (Brive); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), M Parra (Clermont Auvergne); T Domingo (Clermont Auvergne), W Servat (Toulouse), N Mas (Perpignan), L Nallet (Racing Metro), J Pierre (Clermont Auvergne) T Dusautoir (Toulouse, captain), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz).
Replacements:D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), J-B Poux (Toulouse), S Chabal (Racing Metro), A Lapandry (Clermont Auvergne), D Yachvili (Biarritz), D Marty (Perpignan), J Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne).