Six Nations starting line-ups

A look at the starting line-ups ahead of the third weekend of action in the 2010 Six Nations Championship.

Wales v France, Millennium Stadium, Friday, 8pm. 

Mike Phillips won a startling recall to Wales duty after only 40 minutes of rugby in four months. Phillips will be on the bench for Friday night’s clash against France.

Warren Gatland has wasted no time summoning Phillips into the Test arena, naming him as back-up for Cardiff Blues number nine Richie Rees. Rees replaces his Cardiff Blues colleague Gareth Cooper in one of four changes and a positional switch following Wales’ dramatic 31-24 success against Scotland nine days ago.

Elsewhere, hooker Huw Bennett takes over from the injured Gareth Williams to complete an entire Ospreys front row, and there is an all-Blues second-row partnership of Bradley Davies and Deiniol Jones, with Jonathan Thomas switching from lock to flanker.

France suffered another injury blow during the week when lock Pascal Pape was ruled out because of an ankle injury.

Pape is replaced by Julien Pierre while Sebastien Chabal has been recalled as a replacement. Wing Benjamin Fall had to withdraw from the Wales game on Tuesday after injuring his ankle.

Earlier this week, injuries forced coach Marc Lievremont to pick his team without two players who started against Ireland, wing Vincent Clerc and flanker Fulgence Ouedraogo.

Wales: L Byrne (Ospreys); L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), J Hook (Ospreys), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), S Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (Scarlets), R Rees (Cardiff Blues); P James (Ospreys), H Bennett (Ospreys), A Jones (Ospreys), B Davies (Cardiff Blues), D Jones (Cardiff Blues), J Thomas (Ospreys), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), R Jones (Ospreys, capt). Replacements: K Owens (Scarlets), R Gill (Saracens), L Charteris (Newport Gwent Dragons), S Warburton (Cardiff Blues), M Phillips (Ospreys), A Bishop (Ospreys), T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues).

France: C Poitrenaud (Toulouse); J Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne), M Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), A Palisson (Brive); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), M Parra (Clermont Auvergne); T Domingo (Clermont Auvergne), W Servat (Toulouse), N Mas (Perpignan), L Nallet (Racing-Metro), J Pierre (Clermont Auvergne), T Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz). Replacements: D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), J-B Poux (Toulouse), S Chabal (Racing-Metro), A Lapandry (Clermont Auvergne), F Michalak (Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), M Andreu (Castres).

Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa).

Assistant referees: Alan Lewis and Simon McDowell (both Ireland).

Italy v Scotland, Stadio Flaminio, Saturday, 1.30pm (Irish time). 

Andy Robinson has made four changes to his Scotland side for their match against Italy. Three of the changes were enforced by the tournament-ending injuries suffered by back-three stars Chris Paterson, Thom Evans and Rory Lamont in the defeat to Wales just over a week ago.

The trio were replaced by Hugo Southwell, Simon Danielli and Max Evans, with the latter returning at centre as Sean Lamont moved back to the wing. The other change to the XV that started at the Millennium Stadium saw Allan Jacobsen recalled at prop in place of Alasdair Dickinson.

Italy coach Nick Mallett has made no changes to the starting XV that lost their last Six Nations match to England for the game.

The Italians go into the encounter looking to get their campaign up and running after defeats to Ireland and England in their two opening games of the tournament.

Italy: L McLean (Treviso); A Masi (Racing-Metro), G Canale (Clermont Auvergne), G Garcia (Treviso), Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais); C Gower (Bayonne), T Tebaldi (Gran Parma); S Perugini (Bayonne), L Ghiraldini (Treviso, capt), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester), Q Geldenhuys (Viadana), M Bortolami (Gloucester), J Sole (Viadana), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais), A Zanni (Treviso). Replacements: F Ongaro (Saracens), M Aguero (Saracens), C Del Fava (Viadana), P Derbyshire (Petrarca), P Canavosio (Viadana), R Bocchino (Rovigo), K Robertson (Viadana).

Scotland: H Southwell (Stade Francais); S Danielli (Ulster), M Evans (Glasgow), G Morrison (Glasgow), S Lamont (Scarlets); D Parks (Glasgow), C Cusiter (Glasgow, capt); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton), J Hamilton (Edinburgh), A Kellock (Glasgow), K Brown (Glasgow), J Barclay (Glasgow), J Beattie (Glasgow). Replacements: S Lawson (Gloucester), A Dickinson (Gloucester), N Hines (Leinster), A Strokosch (Gloucester), M Blair (Edinburgh), P Godman (Edinburgh), N De Luca (Edinburgh).

Referee: Dave Pearson (England).

Assistant referees: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland) and Tim Hayes (Wales).

England v Ireland, Twickenham, Saturday, 4pm. 

Jonathan Sexton will start for Ireland ahead of Ronan O'Gara while Geordon Murphy returns at fullback. The changes were two of four announced by coach Declan Kidney on Tuesday after last year's grand slam champions lost 33-10 to France.

Rory Best comes in at hooker as Jerry Flannery starts a six-week ban for kicking a French opponent and Donncha O'Callaghan is selected ahead of Leo Cullen in the second row. Sean Cronin takes Best’s place on a bench that also sees the return of Shane Jennings.

Martin Johnson has kept faith with the team who laboured to a 17-12 victory over Italy by naming an unchanged side. Jonny Wilkinson has shaken off some muscle tightness and, despite criticism of his performance in Rome, retains his place. There are three changes on the bench where flanker Joe Worsley, yet to feature in the championship, fullback Ben Foden and hooker Lee Mears are recalled.

Mark Cueto has recovered from a stomach bug and start on the right wing.

England: D Armitage (London Irish); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), M Tait (Sale Sharks), R Flutey (Brive), U Monye (Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Toulon), D Care (Harlequins); T Payne (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Saracens, capt), J Haskell (Stade Francais), L Moody (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins). Replacements: L Mears (Bath), D Wilson (Bath), L Deacon (Leicester), J Worsley (Wasps), P Hodgson (London Irish), T Flood (Leicester), B Foden (Northampton).

Ireland: G Murphy (Leicester); T Bowe (Ospreys), B O’Driscoll (Leinster, capt), G D’Arcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster); J Sexton (Leinster), T O’Leary (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), P O’Connell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements: S Cronin (Connacht), T Buckley (Munster), L Cullen (Leinster), S Jennings (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster), R O’Gara (Munster), A Trimble (Ulster).

Referee: Mark Lawrence (South Africa).

Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (France) and David Changleng (Scotland).