Saint-Andre tinkers, just a little
France coach Philippe Saint-Andre finally seems to have settled on a halfback combination, but he continues to tinker elsewhere in his team.
Saint-Andre stuck with Sebastien Tillous-Borde and Camille Lopez as his halfback pairing for the third time in a row – after months of tinkering – as Les Bleus seek a November hat-trick of wins when they face Argentina on Saturday.
He made four changes to the starting line-up from that which edged Australia 29-26 last week.
Prop Alexandre Menini and hooker Guilhem Guirado drop down to the replacements bench, with Xavier Chiocci and Benjamin Kayser, who both came on to good effect in the previous games, stepping up.
In the second row Sebastien Vahaamahina starts in place of Yoann Maestri while at centre, Maxime Mermoz takes over from Alexandre Dumoulin.
However, the decision to retain Tillous-Borde and Lopez at halfback will earn him some credit with his critics.
The pair, who played well in a 40-15 rout of Fiji and in last Saturday's win over the Wallabies, will start together again at the Stade de France at the expense of Castres teammates Rory Kockott and Remi Tales.
Scrumhalf Tillous-Borde and flyhalf Lopez were Saint-Andre's 13th halfback pairing to start for France since he took over from Marc Lievremont after the 2010 World Cup.
France: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Maxime Mermoz, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Teddy Thomas, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Damien Chouly, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Xavier Chiocci.
Replacements – from: Alexandre Menini, Uini Atonio, Guilhem Guirado, Yoann Maestri, Alexandre Flanquart, Yannick Nyanga, Rory Kockott, Remi Tales, Mathieu Bastareaud, Maxime Medard, Benjamin Fall.
Date: Saturday, November 22
Venue: Stade France, Paris
Kick-off: 21.00 (20.00 GMT; 17.00 Argentina time):
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Steve Walsh (Australia), Stuart Berry (South Africa)
TMO: Jim Yuille (Scotland)
France – Argentine : Les meilleurs ennemis by FFR
