France named a second string team to face New Zealand in their World Cup third place playoff this Thursday.
"Five of the players who started Sunday's semi-final against England have been ruled out or were not available and most of the others were exhausted," team manager Jo Maso said today.
"That's why we decided to field fresh players against the All Blacks but make no mistake we are going to play that game to win because it's always an honour to face New Zealand."
Fabien Galthie, who announced his retirement from international rugby after the 24-7 defeat to England in last Sunday's semi-finals, will be replaced by Dimitri Yachvili at scrumhalf and by hooker Yannick Bru as captain.
The 34-year-old scrumhalf, who played in four World Cups, said he was about to leave the squad after the death of a close relative.
In the backline, wing Christophe Dominici has been ruled out because of twisted right knee.
In the pack, prop Olivier Milloud suffered a neck injury against England, number eight Imanol Harinordoquy twisted a wrist and flanker Serge Betsen has a knee injury.
France- 15-Clement Poitrenaud; 14-Pepito Elhorga, 13-Tony Marsh, 12-Damien Traille, 11-David Bory; 10-Gerald Merceron, 9-Dimitri Yachvili; 8-Christian Labit, 7-Sebastien Chabal, 6-Patrick Tabacco, 5-Thibault Privat, 4-David Auradou, 3-Jean-Baptiste Poux, 2-Yannick Bru (captain), 1-Sylvain Marconnet.
Replacements:16-Raphael Ibanez, 17-Jean-Jacques Crenca, 18-Fabien Pelous, 19-Olivier Magne, , 20-Frederic Michalak, 21-Brian Liebenberg, 22-Nicolas Brusque.