Marc Lièvremont has named an unchanged French side for only the second time in his tenure ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final against the All Blacks in Auckland.
However the maverick French coach will wait until the end of the week to name the replacements for the Eden Park clash.
That means that Morgan Parra will start at fly-half for the fifth successive game and is expected to continue the kicking duties after his perfect game from the kicking tee against the Welsh in the semi-final.
Lièvremont said: “There was no hesitation for me, it was quite clear. I’m not thinking about the importance of the game at the moment, or the title.
“I’m just thinking about the preparation to get my team in the best possible shape to compete with New Zealand.
“I know how we are going to try to beat them. But I’m going to keep that for my players. We’ll have to prove it on the pitch. There is obviously a strategy in place. There is the ambition to play. These games are won and lost on little things. I hope this one will also be like that, rather than the thrashing predicted by most people.
“There are still some players slightly injured who didn’t train yesterday, so I will name replacements later.”
15. Maxime Médard – Toulouse 14. Vincent Clerc – Toulouse 13. Aurélien Rougerie – Clermont Auvergne 12. Maxime Mermoz – Perpignan 11. Alexis Palisson – Toulon 10. Morgan Parra – Clermont Auvergne 9. Dimitri Yachvili – Biarritz 1. Jean-Baptiste Poux – Toulouse 2. William Servat – Toulouse 3. Nicolas Mas – Perpignan 4. Pascal Papé – Stade Français 5. Lionel Nallet – Racing Métro 6. Thierry Dusautoir – Toulouse 7. Julien Bonnaire – Clermont Auvergne 8. Imanol Harinordoquy – Biarritz
