Wales v France: Teams

Skills coach Neil Jenkins insists Wales will have to tighten their defence if they are to derail France's Grand Slam challenge on Friday night.

Wales have conceded five tries already in this season's RBS Six Nations Championship - with both England and Scotland able to cross the whitewash.

And with free-flowing France having won both their games so far this season, including a comprehensive demolition of defending champions Ireland in Paris, the signs are ominous for Wales.

The defensive problems are a far cry from their 2008 Grand Slam success when they were breached just twice.

And Jenkins insists it is vital that they are able to quell the threat posed by Les Bleus at the Millennium Stadium.

"We haven't played as well as we would have liked in the last few games," said Jenkins.

"We have worked hard on our defence and other aspects of our game which were not as good as we would have liked against Scotland, and defence was one of those.

"Our defence will have to be at its very best if we are going to win on Friday night.

"We want to pick the intensity up, and we've got to do it against France or we will come unstuck. We only did it in patches against England and Scotland."

Wales coach Warren Gatland has tweaked his side for the clash, with the inclusion of Cardiff Blues scrum-half Richie Rees one of four changes.

Huw Bennett, Bradley Davies and Deiniol Jones come into bolster the pack, with Jonathan Thomas switching from lock to the back-row.

On the bench, there is a recall for fit-again Lions No.9 Mike Phillips.

Concentration

France hooker William Servat has insisted Les Bleus are taking nothing for granted.

France have looked in imperious form so far - with their 33-10 victory over Ireland sounding a warning to the rest of the sides in the tournament.

However Servat claims he and his team-mates will not be getting carried away by that victory.

"The keyword is concentration again," he said. "We have to realise above all that you always have to prepare for a rugby match, that nothing is done in advance and that we practise a sport where if you don't have all the ingredients you can suddenly be swept aside.

"I'm aware that if we don't make use of the same ingredients that we had against Ireland, we will lose hugely in Wales.

"In football individual talents can save a team, make huge differences. For us, it's more difficult and above all, it's a fighting sport.

"And if you're not there in the fight, you lose the match."

Coach Marc Lievremont has been forced into changes for the trip, with injury ruling Vincent Clerc, Pascal Pape and Fulgence Ouedraogo out.

Bayonne's Benjamin Fall had initially replaced Clerc in the starting XV, but he also had to withdraw after suffering an ankle injury in training. That means his place is taken by Julien Malzieu.

Julien Bonnaire takes over from Ouedraogo in the back row, while Bourgoin's Julien Pierre replaces Pape with former Sale forward Sebastien Chabal coming onto the replacements bench.

Wales:15 Lee Byrne, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 James Hook, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Ryan Jones(c), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Jonathan Thomas, 5 Deiniol Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Paul James.
Replacements:16 Ken Owens, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Sam Warburton, 20 Mike Phillips, 21 Andrew Bishop, 22 Tom Shanklin.

France:15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Julien Malzieu, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Julien Pierre, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements:16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Alexandre Lapandry, 19 Sébastien Chabal, 20 Frederic Michalak, 21 David Marty, 22 Marc Andreu.