SIX NATIONS: Marc Lievremont admits his France team could be embarrassed by Italy on Saturday if they fail to improve on the "mediocrity" they have shown so far in the Six Nations Championship.

The head coach today reacted to Sunday’s humiliating 34-10 defeat to England at Twickenham by making four personnel changes and two positional alterations to their side for this weekend’s clash with the wooden-spoon favourites in Rome.

Damien Traille, Florian Fritz, Julien Bonnaire and Fabien Barcella all return to the team, with Julien Malzieu, Mathieu Bastareaud, Jerome Thion and Lionel Faure dropping out as Lievremont once again rings the changes, this time understandably.

Lievremont is still at a loss to explain why Les Bleus lacked so much bite against England, but he has warned his underperforming squad things could get a lot worse if they do not buck up their ideas ahead of Saturday.

“If we continue in this mediocrity, there is a great chance we are going to lose,” said Lievremont, whose side’s only good display so far this tournament came in the win over Wales on matchday three.

“There are many reasons for this, having seen our match in England, the context and the improvement of the Italians.

“We have everything to fear in this match.”

Lievremont has come under renewed fire following France’s no-show at Twickenham and admits he is yet to come to terms with what happened on Sunday.

“To me, it was inexplicable,” he said. “It isn’t an organisational problem. There were just individual things that went on that I can’t explain.

“The main disappointment was our lack of physicality. Up front, apart from Dimitri Szarzewski and Thierry Dusautoir who were irreproachable even though they lost some balls, the players just weren’t at their level.

“Some (players) have said to me that they haven’t slept for two nights.”

The two changes behind the scrum see Traille come in at fullback - pushing Maxime Medard to the right wing in place of the benched Malzieu - and Fritz return at centre instead of Bastareaud, who is also among the substitutes.

Up front, Sale prop Faure drops out of the 22 altogether with Barcella returning to the front row and Bonnaire starts at number seven in a move that sees Sebastien Chabal slip back into the secondrow as a replacement for Thion.

“This was a collective and individual setback but we genuinely couldn’t just get rid of a dozen players,” Lievremont said. “I don’t believe that changing too many players would provide us with the answers.

“As you have seen, we are keeping faith with this squad and we hope they are going to react.

“They have a great chance to wash away what happened at Twickenham.”

Frederic Michalak, once a mercurial outhalf, has been reinvented as a scrumhalf since returning to Toulouse following a season-long sabbatical in South Africa, and was called up on Monday evening as a replacement for the injured Sebastien Tillous-Borde.

The 26-year-old is in a France squad for the first time since the 2007 World Cup but only makes the bench this weekend.

“At no moment did we think of starting him,” Lievremont said of Michalak, who has been capped 50 times. “But he has rediscovered his freshness, his appetite, his enthusiasm and we are happy for him to be back in the squad.”

Lievremont is also happy to have Chabal back as a lock after seeing the experiment at starting the Sale tyro as a flanker against England go badly wrong.

“It wasn’t because he played at seven that we lost,” the head coach said. “But we know his qualities and his drawbacks in the secondrow. He has always satisfied us in that position.”

France have not won on their travels since their victory over Scotland in last season’s Six Nations, which was Lievremont’s first match in charge.

A heavy win for France this weekend could secure them third spot in the table - even second if Wales lose at home to Ireland - although Les Bleus would also need England to lose at home to Scotland.

France team (v Italy):D Traille, M Medard, F Fritz, Y Jauzion, C Heymans, F Trinh-Duc, M Parra, I Harinordoquy, J Bonnaire, T Dusautoir, S Chabal, L Nallet (C), S Marconnet, D Szarzewski, F Barcella. Replacements : W Servat, T Domingo, J Thion, J Bonnaire, F Michalak, M Bastareaud, J Malzieu.