Bernard Laporte will blood a couple of hungry debutants in an otherwise familiar French line-up for Saturday's St Valentine's Day opener in Paris, writes Gerry Thornley.
The dynamic ball-carrying pair of Toulouse hooker William Servat (25), and lock Pascal Pape (23) represent the new breed of French player Laporte is looking toward in readiness for staging the 2007 World Cup.
The abiding French lesson from the last World Cup, as far as Laporte is concerned, is that Les Bleus lacked what he calls "physical density" in their semi-final beating at the hands of England, a point which he felt was reinforced by Perpignan's defeat to Wasps in their European Cup pool decider last Sunday week.
The only other change in the pack which laid the foundations for France's 43-21 quarter-final win over Ireland last November sees the return of the awesome South African-born Pieter de Villiers, who had been ruled out of the finals by a fall during some mountain cycling in the French squad's preparatory training camp.
Another relative newcomer, though hardly of mountainous physique, is the gifted, 26-year-old Toulouse scrumhalf Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who takes over from the retired Fabien Galthie. Damien Traille is recalled to the centre in place of the injured Tony Marsh, and Vincent Clerc, a surprise omission from the World Cup, regains his place at the expense of the out-of-touch and out-of-favour Aurelien Rougerie.
The highly touted Servat could, by all accounts, be quite a handful for Ireland on Saturday if he gets the ball in open space. Commenting on the inclusion of Servat ahead of his more experienced 30-year-old Toulouse teammate Yannick Bru, Laporte said: "He is a player for the future because he is powerful and dynamic."
The French have had something of an injury crisis at lock since the World Cup, with Jerome Thion joining Oliver Brouzet as a long-term absentee, while Fabien Pelous - reinstated as French skipper - and replacement lock David Auradou have only just returned from injury.
But as Paul O'Connell observed yesterday, a spate of injuries in one position can have serious repercussions for Ireland whereas in France, "it just gives them a chance to unearth another superstar". And that is the hope for Pape.
The same is true for Elissalde, who, not surprisingly, has usurped the singularly unimpressive and apparently limited Dimitri Yachvili in the scrumhalf pecking order.
"Nobody took the number two position behind Fabien Galthie in the last year and so now the cards have been distributed again," commented Laporte. "Elissalde has progressed with Toulouse this season and the fact that he is playing with (Frederic) Michalak gave him an advantage."
That he can alternate between scrumhalf and outhalf, much like the gifted Michalak, also in theory gives France an ultra-fluid half-back combination.
Furthermore, because he is a superior goalkicker than Yachvili, that could alleviate some of the pressure on Michalak.
