France have retained the team that defeated Italy 53-27 at the weekend toface Wales in their last Six Nations match at the Stade de France on Saturday.
"We badly needed to win in Rome. We won. It was logical to give the players an opportunity to confirm," team manager Jo Maso said when he announced the starting line-up today at the French training camp in Marcoussis, south of Paris.
"I'm glad we have another game to play. We conceded fourtries to the Italians and we know we still have a lot of work todo before the World Cup," coach Bernard Laporte said.
After defeats by England and Ireland, who battle for theGrand Slam this weekend in Dublin, both the French coach and managerwere clearly relieved by their team's performance against Italy.
"The first half was probably the best 40 minutes we everplayed technically and collectively. It was like a dream," Maso said.
"We know now that we haven't lost our game. We know thatwhen we are in the right collective spirit we can reach thesummits."
But the French manager also said that the Welsh would offera stronger challenge than the Italians because they travel toParis desperate to avoid a humiliating whitewash after defeatsto Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland.
"We mustn't underestimate them. They lost by a point toIreland on Saturday but I think they should have won. They havea lot of pride and proved they were back in business," he said.
Team:15-Clement Poitrenaud; 14-Aurelien Rougerie, 13-ThomasCastaignede, 12-Damien Traille, 11-Xavier Garbajosa; 10-FredericMichalak, 9-Dimitri Yachvili; 8-Imanol Harinordoquy, 7-OlivierMagne, 6-Serge Betsen, 5-Olivier Brouzet, 4-Fabien Pelous(captain), 3-Sylvain Marconnet, 2-Raphael Ibanez, 1-Jean-JacquesCrenca.
Replacements:16-Jean-Baptiste Rue, 17-Olivier Milloud,18-David Auradou, 19-Patrick Tabacco, 20-Jean-Baptiste Elissalde,21-Gerald Merceron, 22-Vincent Clerc.