France unchanged for Wales

France have retained the team that defeated Italy 53-27 at the weekend to face Wales in their last Six Nations match at the Stade de France on Saturday. "We badly needed to win in Rome. We won. It was logical to give the players an opportunity to confirm," team manager Jo Maso said.

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"I'm glad we have another game to play. We conceded four tries to the Italians and we know we still have a lot of work to do before the World Cup," coach Bernard Laporte said.

After defeats by England and Ireland, who battle for the title this weekend in Dublin, both the French coach and manager were clearly relieved by their team's performance against Italy.

"The first half was probably the best 40 minutes we ever played technically and collectively. It was like a dream," Maso said. "We know now that we haven't lost our game. We know that when we are in the right collective spirit we can reach the summits."

But the French manager also said that the Welsh would offer a stronger challenge than the Italians because they travel to Paris desperate to avoid a humiliating whitewash after defeats to Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland.

"We mustn't underestimate them. They lost by a point to Ireland on Saturday but I think they should have won. They have a lot of pride and proved they were back in business," he said.

Team: 15-Clement Poitrenaud; 14-Aurelien Rougerie, 13-Thomas Castaignede, 12-Damien Traille, 11-Xavier Garbajosa; 10-Frederic Michalak, 9-Dimitri Yachvili; 8-Imanol Harinordoquy, 7-Olivier Magne, 6-Serge Betsen, 5-Olivier Brouzet, 4-Fabien Pelous (captain), 3-Sylvain Marconnet, 2-Raphael Ibanez, 1-Jean-Jacques Crenca.

Replacements: 16-Jean-Baptiste Rue, 17-Olivier Milloud,18- David Auradou, 19-Patrick Tabacco, 20-Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 21-Gerald Merceron, 22-Vincent Clerc.