France have made just one change from the side that defeated Scotland for Saturday's crunch Six Nations clash with Ireland at Lansdowne Road.
As expected, scrumhalf and captain Fabien Galthie who suffered a shoulder-injury against the Scots on February 23rd, will be replaced by 22-year-old Dimitri Yachvili, who is handed his first start in the scrumhalf position. Lock Fabien Pelous, who has 74 caps, takes over as team captain.
"Apart from Fabien's injury, it was logical to keep faith with the team that scored more than 30 points against Scotland," team manager Jo Maso said when he announced the team this morning.
"We have to win in Dublin to stay alive in the championship. A win would allow us to stay in the race despite our defeat at Twickenham [against England]," he added.
Outhalf Francois Gelez, who contributed 18 points to France's 38-3 victory over Scotland, has been named as first-choice flyhalf and goalkicker ahead of Gerald Merceron, who had a disappointing game when France lost 25-17 to England.
The only new name in the squad is that of Agen scrum-half Mathieu Barrau who is called up for the first time as backup for Yachvili
Coach Bernard Laporte stuck by Xavier Garbajosa at outside centre, leaving Thomas Castaignede on the bench.
Eddie O'Sullivan, whose side still have Grand Slam ambitions after wins over Scotland and Italy, names his starting line-up at the CityWest Hotel this afternoon.
Ireland
Yet to be announced
France
15 Clement Poitrenaud (Stade Toulousain), 14 Aurelien Rougerie (Montferrand), 13 Xavier Garbajosa (Stade Toulousain), 12 Damien Traille (Pau), 11 Vincent Clerc (Stade Toulousain), 10 Francois Gelez (Agen), 9 Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), 8 Imanol Harinordoquy (Pau), 7 Olivier Magne (Montferrand), 7 Serge Betsen (Biarritz), 5 Olivier Brouzet (Montferrand), 4 Fabien Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Français), Raphael Ibanez (Castres), Jean-Jacques Crenca (Agen)
Replacements
16 Jean-Baptiste Rue (Agen), 17 Christian Califano (Saracens/Eng), 18 David Auradou (Stade Français), 19 Sebastien Chabal (Bourgoin), 20 Matthieu Barrau (Agen), 21 Gerald Merceron (Montferrand), 22 Thomas Castaignede (Saracens)