France coach Marc Lievremont has made just two injury-enforced changes for Saturday's crunch RBS Six Nations clash with Ireland.
Clerc and Palisson called up to face Ireland
France coach Marc Lievremont has made just two injury-enforced changes for Saturday's crunch RBS Six Nations clash with Ireland.
Les Bleus saw Benjamin Fall and Aurelien Rougerie ruled out the match in Paris after they picked up knocks in the opening win over Scotland at Murrayfield.
Rougerie was injured making a tackle in just the fifth minute so free-scoring back Vincent Clerc takes his spot on the wing having come off the bench on Sunday.
Fall was initially declared fit for the match, however he was subsequently replaced by Julien Malzieu in the match-day squad.
Malzieu will now take Clerc's place on the bench, with 22-year-old Brive back Alexis Palisson going straight into the starting XV.
Lievremont said: "You don't change a winning team. Playing Vincent Clerc from the start shouldn't cause a debate, there was a lot of discussion on who to play on the left wing.
"We decided to go with the versatility and left foot of Alexis Palisson.
"We know the qualities of Julien Malzieu but it seemed interesting to us to have the presence of Alexis alongside Clement Poitrenaud."
Prop Luc Ducalcon, a replacement against Scotland, also misses out through injury so the experienced Sylvain Marconnet comes onto the bench.
France: 15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Pascal Pape, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Julien Bonnaire, 20 Frederic Michalak, 21 David Marty, 22 Julien Malzieu.
