France coach Marc Lievremont has continued his baffling selection policy after naming five changes in the team to play England at Twickenham Saturday.
France chiseled out a hard fought 22-25 victory over Ireland last time out. But despite Morgan Parra's 100% kicking ratio in that game, Dimitri Yachvili, has been recalled to the scrum half position.
Parra provided 15 of les Bleus 25 points at Lansdowne road but his half back partner Francois Trinh-Duc must now adapt to playing with the more pragmatic Biarritz number 9.
Much of the headlines will surely be drawn by the inclusion of Sebastian Chabal. The Racing Metro forward, having played in the second row during the 2007 World Cup, has been handed a spot at open-side flanker in place of Julien Bonnaire.
Many felt that Chabal would be cut from the squad after his 78th minute looping pass almost allowed Ireland seize victory from the jaws of defeat. Fergus McFadden pounced on the loose ball to create the turnover, this in turn, set off a breathless backline move that ended just shy of the French five meter line.
That change will doubtless weaken the pack and the positional switch of Maxine Medarde to fullback could do likewise with the back three. Clement Poitrenaud will return to the bench, with Vincent Clerc coming onto his favoured left wing position in the reshuffle.
With 22 tries to his name, Clerc will always strengthen the side and inside him, Veteran centre Yannick Jauzion replaces Damien Traille as partner for Aurelien Rougerie in midfield.
With six tries to his name in just two games this campaign, England's Chris Ashton is undoubtedly the man of the moment and France defensive coach Dave Ellis has hinted that he has a cunning plan to deal with Ashton at Twickenham.
"Ashton can be stopped. We used to stop Jason Robinson from scoring. You've just got to make sure that he doesn't get the ball when he wants it.
"It's not just about closing one man down. If you concentrate on doing that, then it only takes away your focus from elsewhere. Ashton is a finisher, just like Jason was, or Shaun Edwards and Ellery Hanley were in rugby league before them. It's inbred in rugby league players."
On that note Ellis widened his analysis from the wings to more general facets that will be needed in their game.
"First and foremost, you've got to stop giving England decent ball.
"Italy gave them far too much. They just let them play. They were allowed to play at their own tempo. We won't let them do that."
On Monday Lievremont attempted to stir up more ill feeling between the sides when he admitted:
"We don't like them [the English] and it's better to say that than be hypocritical. We respect them - well in my case at least I do. But you couldn't say we have the slightest thing in common."
The former flanker continued stating the obvious by hailing the perceived national traits of other countries involved in the Six Nations:
"We appreciate our Italian cousins with whom we share the same quality of life," said Lievremont.
"We appreciate the Celts and their conviviality and then among all these nations we have one huge thing in common. We all don't like the English.
"We beat Ireland yet left Dublin with the encouragement of all the Irish who said 'for pity's sake, beat the English'.
For Lievremont's sake; Les Bleus need to overturn the chariot or else his words jibes will blow up in his face.
France team (v England): Maxime Medard, Yoann Huget, Aurelien Rougerie, Yannick Jauzion, Vincent Clerc, Francois Trinh-Duc, Dimitri Yachvili, Sebastien Chabal, Imanol Harinordoquy, Thierry Dusautoir (C), Lionel Nallet, Julien Pierre, Nicolas Mas, William Servat, Thomas Domingo.
Replacements : Guilhem Guirado, Sylvain Marconnet, Jerome Thion, Julien Bonnaire, Morgan Parra, Damien Traille, Clement Poitrenaud
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