France have handed recalls to experienced flyhalf Gerald Merceron and winger David Bory for their one-off test match against Canada at Stade de France on Saturday.
Merceron was left on the sidelines for his side's recent victory over South Africa and draw with New Zealand, but will now replace Francois Gelez. Bory, who was not even on the replacements' bench for France's previous two games, comes in for Toulouse winger Cedric Heymans.
French coach Jo Maso said: "We didn't want to reshuffle the team just for the sake of experimenting. The returns of Merceron and Bory are purely logical as both played an important part in our Six Nations grand slam winning campaign last season."
"Our forwards played two magnificent games against South Africa and New Zealand but our backline suffered from a lack of experience against the All Blacks," he added.
Filed by Rob Wright
