Thierry Dusautoir back for France against Scotland
Thursday 3 September 2015 15:14, UK
France captain Thierry Dusautoir returns to the team to face Scotland at the Stade de France on Saturday after recovering from a knee injury.
Les Bleus coach Philippe Saint-Andre has made only two changes to the team that beat England 25-20 in Paris on August 22 for his side's final World Cup warm-up game.
Flanker Dusautoir replaces Bernard Le Roux after a two-game lay-off and Alexandre Flanquart comes in for Yoann Maestri in the second row.
Saint-Andre has kept faith in Sebastien Tillous-Borde and Frederic Michalak for the scrum-half and fly-half positions after the pair combined well together against England.
Louis Picamoles retains the No 8 shirt after also making a good impression against England.
France will start their World Cup campaign on September 19 against Italy after being drawn in Pool D with the Azzurri, Canada, Romania and Ireland.
"This is a balanced team and the one which will start against Italy could be very similar to it," Saint-Andre said. "But I will take into account Saturday's collective performance, the level of form and the little injuries."
On Dusautoir, the coach added: "He is in great shape, his performance will matter and he prepared well for this match."
France: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde; 1 Eddy Ben Aruos, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 3 Rabah Slimani, 4 Pascal Pape, 5 Alexandre Flanquart, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 7 Damien Chouly, 8 Louis Picamoles.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Nicolas Mas, 19 Bernard Le Roux, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Morgan Parra, 22 Remi Tales, 23 Alexandre Dumoulin.
