Elissalde issues warning

Elissalde: Wary of Scotland power

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France scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde expects his young team to face a tough test when they kick off their RBS Six Nations campaign against Scotland on Sunday.

Les Bleus have named six uncapped players in their 22 man squad travelling up to Scotland for the Murrayfield encounter.

New coach Marc Lievremont has replaced the experienced backbone of the team in a bid to discover new blood with the 2011 World Cup already in mind.

The squad only congregated on Monday, and Lievremont has less than a week to blend the mixture of old and new together in time to face Frank Hadden's ever-improving Scotland side.

Adapt

Elissalde is one of the most experienced members of Les Bleus' side, and the 30-year-old does not expect things will come easily against the Scots.

"It is very tricky to put everything in place," he said.

"The squad is having to adapt to new demands in just five days and four training sessions. To manage all our problems is practically impossible.

"Not everything will be perfect [on Sunday]. At the very best, it will be average, in my opinion.

"It is up to us to forge a character and winning mentality, because I think we are going to endure some very tough moments this weekend. I hope I am wrong."

Elissalde will partner Francois Trinh-Duc at half-back this weekend.

The 21-year-old Montpellier fly-half will be one of those making his debut and is being tipped by his Toulouse colleague to have a long career with Les Bleus.

"He's a new number 10, and a youngster with a carefree attitude," added Elissalde.

Double blow

"I hope he will keep that up and doesn't pile the pressure on his shoulders.

"That's what happened with me and perhaps that's the reason I didn't develop until a bit later."

France have been dealt a double blow after prop Jean-Baptiste Poux has been ruled out for 15 days with a thigh problem, and it was discovered on Wednesday that Florian Fritz fractured his fibula in training.

The Toulouse centre, who was due to start against Scotland, has been ruled out of the entire RBS Six Nations and could be out for up to three months.

Perpignan's David Marty, has been called up as Fritz's replacement and will find out tomorrow whether he will go straight into the starting line-up.

France defeated Scotland 46-19 in the final match of last year's Six Nations to secure the defence of their title, but Les Bleus have not always found the Scots such comfortable opponents.

Two years ago Scotland recorded a 20-16 win over France in what was Hadden's first Six Nations game in charge.

Elissalde has respect for Hadden's team and is well-aware from his Heineken Cup experience with Toulouse that Scottish sides will be up for any battle put in front of them.

"We played [Edinburgh] over there with Toulouse and it was a miracle that we managed to beat them," he added.

"I also saw that Glasgow posed Biarritz a lot of problems, so we know we have to be very careful."