Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack will form an all-new half-back pairing as two of four French changes for their Guinness Six Nations clash against Scotland this weekend.
Les Bleus have lost each of their opening two matches in this year’s Championship and Jacques Brunel has opted for a youth movement to arrest that run – as 22-year-old scrum-half Dupont and 19-year-old Ntamack, son of French great Emile, get the call in place of Morgan Parra, 30, and Camille Lopez, 29.
Dupont in particular impressed coming off the bench against England in Le Crunch, while Toulouse star Thomas Ramos, 23, who made his international debut as a replacement in that clash starts at full-back.
The fourth personnel change sees Wenceslas Lauret – who started against Wales in Round One – return to the starting XV at blindside flanker for Yacouba Camara.
There are also some positional switches in the backs as Gael Fickou moves from the wing to inside centre – where he has shone for Stade Francais this season – at the expense of Geoffrey Doumayrou, while Yoann Huget switches from full-back to the wing.
Scotland haven’t won in Paris since 1999 but have one win from two in this year’s Guinness Six Nations after an opening-round triumph over Italy.
France opened up their 2019 Guinness Six Nations campaign against Wales in Paris, and after leading 16-0 at half-time, their visitors stormed back to triumph 24-19 – the biggest half-time deficit successfully overcome in Championship history.
Les Bleus then suffered their biggest loss to England in over a century in Round Two at Twickenham as a brilliant tactical kicking game allowed the hosts to rack up a 44-8 triumph.
But Brunel is backing an exciting new-look backline to help them achieve a first win of the Championship.
France team to face Scotland at Stade de France on Saturday: 15. Thomas Ramos 14. Damian Penaud 13. Mathieu Bastareaud 12. Gaël Fickou 11. Yoann Huget 10. Romain Ntamack 9. Antoine Dupont 1. Jefferson Poirot 2. Guilhem Guirado 3. Demba Bamba 4. Sébastien Vahaamahina 5. Félix Lambey 6. Wenceslas Lauret 7. Arthur Iturria 8. Louis Picamoles
Replacements 16. Camille Chat 17. Etienne Falgoux 18. Dorian Aldegheri 19. Paul Willemse 20. Gregory Alldritt 21. Baptiste Serin 22. Anthony Belleau 23. Maxime Médard
