Bench switch for France

France coach Marc Lievremont has made just one switch among his replacements for Sunday's RWC final.

Traille called up for the World Cup final

France coach Marc Lievremont has made just one switch among his replacements for Sunday's World Cup final clash with New Zealand. Lievremont had already confirmed that he would be sticking with the same starting XV that toppled England in the quarter-final and then scraped past 14-man Wales in the last four. However Lievremont has opted to recall veteran back Damien Traille to the bench - with the 32-year-old replacing Cedric Heymans. Traille has not played since the 37-17 pool defeat to the All Blacks but he joins uncapped half-back Jean-Marc Doussain and fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc as covering the back division. As expected Dimitri Szarzewski, Fabien Barcella, Julien Pierre and Fulgence Ouedraogo have been named as the reinforcements for the pack.

Satisfaction

"I didn't hold out much hope of being in the squad, especially since Marc had made it clear after the quarter-final that he was looking for stability," Traille said. "But now I have the ultimate satisfaction of being in the final. I showed a lot of commitment in training every week and I wanted to show I deserved a place, even though the squad had seemed to be set in place until the end. "Now I've got my reward. It's very hard to watch from the stands. But we've said since the beginning that we all have to stick together. "Despite all the criticism it shows we have a solid squad and that's how we've got to where we are today. "I went through a lot. Disappointment after coming off at half-time against the All Blacks, and staying in the stands for so long. But on the other hand, experiencing a World Cup is fabulous." France: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 (capt), 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 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 20 Jean-Marc Doussain, 21 Francois Trinh-Duc, 22 Damien Traille