KEY POINTS:
French rugby coach Bernard Laporte continued his rotation policy today by making five changes, two of them enforced, for the Six Nations test against Ireland at Dublin's Croke Park on Monday (NZT).
"We decided to rotate the players to maintain a competition among our squad," he said.
"The players who are going to start the match on Sunday will be very eager to show they are as good as the ones who won in Rome last Saturday. They know they are in competition with each other," he added.
In the two forced changes, Perpignan centre David Marty, 24, who has eight caps, replaces Florian Fritz, who was ruled out due to a leg injury he suffered in the 39-3 victory in Rome.
Vincent Clerc replaces his Toulouse teammate Cedric Heymans on the wing.
Three other players -- lock Pascal Pape, prop Sylvain Marconnet and flanker Imanol Harinordoquy -- are promoted from the bench.
Pape, 26, who will make his 16th appearance for France alongside Castres teammate Lionel Nallet, takes over from Jerome Thion, who has not fully recovered from a knee injury.
The 33-cap Harinordoquy, who was France's first-choice No 8 at the 2003 World Cup, has been selected ahead of Julien Bonnaire.
Sylvain Marconnet, who starts at loosehead prop in place of Olivier Milloud, will win his 69th cap to break Christian Califano's French prop record.
Thion, Bonnaire and Milloud are included among the replacements.
Laporte kept faith with the backbone of the team -- hooker and captain Raphael Ibanez, No 8 Sebastien Chabal, halfback Pierre Mignoni, first five-eighth David Skrela and fullback Clement Poitrenaud -- which he fielded in Rome for the first time.
Monday's match will be the first rugby international played at Croke Park, the traditional home of Gaelic football and hurling, as Lansdowne Road is being rebuilt.
"It will be a hellish game. The games against Ireland are always tough but this one will be played in a very special environment, in a stadium which is a temple of Gaelic sports where rugby players didn't have the right to play," Laporte said.
"Ireland are a quality team, a very complete team. They play good rugby and they will certainly will be eager to beat us because the last four times we played, they lost, and because we'll face each other in the World Cup pool phase", he added.
France:
Clement Poitrenaud, Vincent Clerc, David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Christophe Dominici, David Skrela, Pierre Mignoni, Sebastien Chabal, Imanol Harinordoquy, Serge Betsen, Pascal Pape, Lionel Nallet, Pieter de Villiers, Raphael Ibanez (captain), Sylvain Marconnet.
Reserves:
Sebastien Bruno, Olivier Milloud, Jerome Thion, Julien Bonnaire, Dimitri Yachvili, Lionel Beauxis, Cedric Heymans.
- REUTERS
