By Tadhg Peavoy
France have made two changes to their starting team for the RBS 6 Nations clash with Ireland at Stade de France on Sunday.
<notforsyndication>Watch France v Ireland live on RTÉ Two and RTÉ.ie on Sunday, 4 March from 2.30pm. Listen to live coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 from 2pm.</notforsyndication>
Toulouse’s Clément Poitrenaud is recalled to the starting team in place of Maxime Medard at full-back. Medard was ruled out of the clash with a knee injury suffered in the 23-17 victory over Scotland.
The other change in Philippe Saint-André’s starting team sees Julien Bonnaire come into the side for Louis Picamoles in the back row. Bonnaire will start at openside flanker, with Imanol Harinordoquy moving to number eight.
Louis Picamoles is demoted to the bench.
The rest of the team and replacements remain the same as the group that faced Scotland.
Saint-André told l'Equipe: "Julien [Bonnaire] has helped us greatly with his movement. The discussion was whether he or Imanol [Harinodoquy] should play at number 8.
"We chose Imanol to bring us greater security in contact at the start of the match."
On Picamoles' demotion to the bench, Saint-André said: "Louis [Picamoles] has been at a high level defensively, but he has lacked something in attack. He's not been effective in the attack zones. We want to see him with the ball in his hands more."
There had been calls in France to drop hooker Dimitri Szarzewski, but Saint-André has stood by the front rower, saying: "We picked him again because he needs more confidence. He was very active in the last match. He was very clean at the breakdown and got around the pitch well. He did miss some tackles early on [against Scotland]. He lacked lucidity.
"It's not that he'll be picked at all costs ahead of William [Servat]. He has to give everything to France. We're confident in his talent."
As for the lack of change in his backline, Saint-André said: "Lionel [Beauxis] was very important against Scotland with his drop-goal and his long kicking. He allows us to have a different strategy in the course of a match.
"But I want to continue with Morgan [Parra] and Francois [Trinh-Duc] in order to retain and play with the ball. We want to play rugby. We need more attacking from our three-quarters. We're looking for solutions to improve our game. I hope it's going to pay off...we need to grab Ireland by the throats from the first minute."
France team to face Ireland in the RBS 6 Nations, Stade de France, Sunday 4 March, kick-off 3pm:
15 C Poitrenaud 14 V Clerc 13 A Rougerie 12 W Fofana 11 J Malzieu 10 F Trinh-Duc 9 M Parra 1 J-B Poux 2 D Szarzewski 3 N Mas 4 P Pape 5 Y Maestri 6 T Dusautoir (captain) 7 Julien Bonnaire 8 I Harinordoquy
Replacements: 16 W Servat 17 V Debaty 18 L Nallet 19 L Picamoles 20 J Dupuy 21 L Beauxis 22 M Mermoz
