Winging in: Vincent Clerc scores France's third try

France coach Marc Lievremont has made just two changes to his side to take on England, from the one that was humiliated against Tonga last weekend.

Prop Nicolas Mas returns to the pack after a missing three pool matches with a hamstring injury, while experienced loose forward Imanol Harinordoquy comes into the starting line-up at No 8 in place of Raphael Lakafia.

Fabrice Estebanez, the centre who featured in the matchday squad for all four of France’s pool games, is banned for three weeks for a dangerous tackle in the 19-14 loss to Tonga.

His place on the bench goes to Perpignan centre David Marty.

Team – 15-Maxime Medard, 14-Vincent Clerc, 13-Aurelien Rougerie, 12-Maxime Mermoz, 11-Alexis Palisson, 10-Morgan Parra, 9-Dimitri Yachvili, 8-Imanol Harinordoquy, 7-Julien Bonnaire, 6-Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5-Lionel Nallet, 4-Pascal Pape, 3-Nicolas Mas, 2-William Servat, 1-Jean-Baptiste Poux.

Replacements: 16-Dimitri Szarzewski, 17-Fabien Barcella, 18-Julien Pierre, 19-Louis Picamoles, 20-Francois Trinh-Duc, 21-David Marty, 22-Cedric Heymans.