Traille to play fly-half

Imanol Harinordoquy was chosen at number eight by coach Bernard Laporte after making his return from a 16-month international exile in last weekend's 62-14 thrashing of Romania.

The Six Nations champions will heavily rely on club connections, with Vincent Clerc, Cedric Heymans, Yannick Jauzion and Florian Fritz all playing for Toulouse.

Traille, Dimitri Yachvili, Thierry Dusautoir, Harinordoquy and Serge Betsen were members of the Biarritz team who won the Top 14 this month. Stade Francais front-rowers Pieter de Villiers, Dimitri Szarzewski and Sylvain Marconnet will lead the forward challenge.

"It can be an asset, bringing extra communication between the players," Laporte told a news conference.

De Villiers, who was born in the outskirts of Cape Town but never had the chance to play there, will be on the pitch despite the death of his brother last Sunday.

"We have decided to make him play. At the beginning he did not want to but eventually said he felt like playing," said Laporte. It will do him good to focus on a rugby game."

France team:

15-Julien Laharrague, 14-Vincent Clerc, 13-Florian Fritz, 12-Yannick Jauzion, 11-Cedric Heymans; 10-Damien Traille, 9-Dimitri Yachvili; 8-Imanol Harinordoquy, 7-Thierry Dusautoir, 6-Serge Betsen, 5-Jerome Thion, 4-Fabien Pelous (captain), 3-Pieter de Villiers, 2-Dimitri Szarzewski, 1-Sylvain Marconnet

Replacements: 16-Raphael Ibanez, 17-Vincent Debaty, 18-Lionel Nallet, 19-Julien Bonnaire, 20-Remy Martin, 21-Pierre Mignoni, 22-Thomas Castaignede