Sweeping change for France as seven players swapped

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre has made seven changes to his team for Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations clash against Scotland at Murrayfield.

The starting XV features a new back-row unit following Les Bleus’ 27-6 loss to Wales last time out, with Perpignan lock Sebastien Vahaamahina selected at blindside flanker, joining openside Alexandre Lapandry and number eight Damien Chouly.

Vahaamahina replaces the injured Yannick Nyanga, with Lapandry in for Wenceslas Lauret and Chouly taking over from Louis Picamoles, who was axed by Saint-Andre after he sarcastically applauded referee Alain Rolland following his sin-binning against Wales.

Elsewhere, Castres hooker Brice Mach fills the vacancy created by an injury to Dimitri Szarzewski, while three switches among the backs see Toulon centre Maxime Mermoz replace the injured Wesley Fofana, Toulouse wing Maxime Medard preferred to Hugo Bonneval and Racing Metro scrum-half Maxime Machenaud selected instead of Jean-Marc Doussain.

France, despite suffering a heaviest defeat against Wales since 1950, are still in the Six Nations title mix along with Wales, England and Ireland.

And they will head to Edinburgh on the back of seven successive victories over Scotland since they suffered a 20-16 reversal in 2006.

Team: B Dulin; Y Huget, M Bastareaud, M Mermoz, M Medard; J Plisson, M Machenaud; T Domingo, B Mach, N Mas, Y Maestri, P Pape(c), S Vahaamahina, A Lapandry, D Chouly.

Replacements: G Guirado, V Debaty R Slimani, A Flanquart, A Claassen, J-M Doussain, R Tales, G Fickou.