In the absence of Fabien Galthie, Fabien Pelous has regained the captaincy of France as Bernard Laporte named a 22-strong squad to take on Ireland at Lansdowne Road on March 8th.
He takes over from scrum-half Galthie who is unavailable for selection after injuring his right shoulder in the 38-3 win over Scotland at the Stade de France on Sunday.
Pelous, the 29-year-old Stade Toulousain lock, captained France 15 times between 1997 and 2002. He will win his 75th cap in Dublin.
Galthie will be replaced at scrum-half by the 22-year-old Dimitri Yachvili of Biarritz who came on against the Scots and had an immediate impact by crafting the fourth French try with an astute cross-field kick to winger Aurelien Rougerie.
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
France
Backs
Mathieu Barrau, Dimitri Yachvili, Francois Gelez, Gerald Merceron, Thomas Castaignede, Vincent Clerc, Xavier Garbajosa, Clement Poitrenaud, Aurelien Rougerie, Damien Traille.
Forwards
Christian Califano, Jean-Jacques Crenca, Sylvain Marconnet, Raphael Ibanez, Jean-Baptiste Rue, David Auradou, Olivier Brouzet, Fabien Pelous (captain), Serge Betsen, Sebastien Chabal, Imanol Harinordoquy, Olivier Magne