France have made nine changes for their final Pool D encounter with Georgia in Marseille on Sunday. Flanker Serge Betsen will captain the team as Raphael Ibanez is rested and Fabien Pelous will be on the bench.

"We took into account the need to rest some players and to keep the guys on their toes," manager Jo Maso said.

A win with a bonus point over Georgia would send France through to the last eight but to top their group they need Ireland to beat Argentina convincingly. The Irish would have to win by seven points and run in at least four tries for the French to go through as group winners.

Coach Bernard Laporte remained optimistic that was a possibility and said: "Ireland and Argentina are on the same level. Anything could happen."

Scrumhalf Pierre Mignoni and wing Christophe Dominici, dropped after the shock defeat by Argentina in the opening match of the tournament, were also named in the starting XV. "Jean-Baptiste Elissalde performed well against Namibia and Ireland and we felt he deserved a rest. We also wanted to give a boost to Mignoni, particularly as Lionel Beauxis will play at outhalf."

Argentina, meanwhile, are preferring not to look beyond winning their pool and reaching the quarter-finals. Lock Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe said yesterday "only sporadically" have the players discussed among themselves what it would mean to finish second - a meeting with favourites New Zealand in Cardiff.

But, pressed on the issue, he told reporters: "I'll sum it up like this: All the effort we've made, then to finish second and play the All Blacks - all 15 will have to get diarrhoea, there must be snipers throughout the stadium shooting at them and we have to play the best match of our lives (to win), so it's preferable to finish first."

Argentina will stay top of the group if they beat Ireland at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.

The talk in the Pumas camp on the Paris outskirts revolves solely around playing well enough to beat the Irish. That would mean France having to go to Cardiff to play the All Blacks.

"Against France, that was our ceiling, we need to go a bit higher (on Sunday)," said Fernandez Lobbe, a veteran of the Pumas' two previous World Cup meetings with Ireland, a 28-24 upset victory in 1999 and a 16-15 defeat in 2003.

The 32-year-old, one of three Pumas set to equal Lisandro Arbizu's Argentinian World Cup appearances record of 11 matches, said Ireland would come out like a wounded lion on Sunday. "They're coming (to the match) a bit knocked, they're not finding their game, but on Sunday they're going to give everything and we're going to meet an Ireland of the standard of the penultimate Six Nations," the 32-year-old said.

"We have a mother of a battle on Sunday, they desperately need the four tries, they'll play everywhere so we have to be very alert for the 80 minutes."

Asked to point out areas where Argentina can improve, Fernandez Lobbe said: "Clearing the ball in the rucks and maybe in attack, the angles and depth with which we attack the ball."

FRANCE (v Georgia): C Poitrenaud; A Rougerie, D Marty, Y Jauzion, C Dominici; L Beauxis, P Mignoni; O Milloud, S Bruno, JB Poux, L Nallet, J Thion, S Betsen (capt), Y Nyanga, J Bonnaire. Replacements: D Szarzewski, N Mas, F Pelous, R Martin, JB Elissalde, D Skrela, V Clerc.