Mathieu Bastareaud dropped to bench as France name team for Wales

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre has relegated powerful centre Mathieu Bastareaud to the bench for Saturday's RBS Six Nations clash against Wales in Paris.

Bastareaud is replaced by Remi Lamerat as one of five changes following Les Bleus’ 18-11 defeat to Ireland last time out.

Three other switches behind the scrum see starts for full-back Brice Dulin, wing Sofiane Guitoune and scrum-half Morgan Parra, who take over from Scott Spedding, an injured Teddy Thomas and Rory Kockott, respectively.

The only change up-front is an enforced one, with Toulon lock Romain Taofifenua deputising for Pascal Pape.

Pape is currently serving a 10-week ban after being cited for kneeing Ireland number eight Jamie Heaslip in the back in Dublin.

Like Wales, France have a 50 per cent success-rate heading into round three of the Six Nations, knowing that defeat would end any title hopes.

And Les Bleus do not have recent history on their side, with Wales having won the last three Six Nations encounters between the countries and prevented France from scoring a try each time.

FRANCE: B Dulin (Racing Metro); Y Huget (Toulouse), R Lamerat (Castres), W Fofana (Clermont Auvergne), S Guitoune (Bordeaux-Begles); C Lopez (Clermont Auvergne), M Parra (Clermont Auvergne); E Ben Arous (Racing Metro), G Guirado (Toulon), R Slimani (Stade Francais); R Taofifenua (Toulon), Y Maestri (Toulouse); T Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), B Le Roux (Racing Metro), D Chouly (Clermont Auvergne.

Replacements: B Kayser (Clermont Auvergne), U Atonio (La Rochelle), V Debaty (Clermont Auvergne), J Suta (Toulon), L Goujon (La Rochelle), S Tillous-Borde (Toulon), R Tales (Castres), M Bastareaud (Toulon).