France drop Bastareaud and Spedding, recall Parra for Wales clash
PARIS (Reuters) - France have dropped battering-ram centre Mathieu Bastareaud to the bench and returned veteran Morgan Parra to scrum half in a major back-line shakeup for their Six Nations home clash against Wales on Saturday.
Smarting from defeat to Ireland after an uninspiring victory over Scotland in their opening game, head coach Philippe Saint-Andre wielded the axe with Bastareaud replaced by Remi Lamerat, who teams up with Wesley Fofana as the centre pair.
Parra comes in for the injured Rory Kockott, who was largely disappointing against Scotland and Ireland, Brice Dulin replaces Scott Spedding at full back and Sofiane Guitoune comes in for the injured Teddy Thomas on the wing.
Second row Pascal Pape, who was banned for 10 weeks on Thursday for kneeing Ireland's Jamie Heaslip in the back in Dublin two weeks ago, is replaced by Romain Taofifenua in the last of five changes to the starting lineup.
Toulon pair Jocelino Suta and Sebastien Tillous-Borde return to the squad among the replacements.
France team:
15-Brice Dulin, 14-Yoann Huget, 13-Remi Lamerat, 12-Wesley Fofana, 11-Sofiane Guitoune, 10-Camille Lopez, 9-Morgan Parra; 8-Damien Chouly, 7-Bernard Le Roux, 6-Thierry Dusautoir, 5-Yoann Maestri, 4-Romain Taofifenua, 3-Rabah Slimani, 2-Guilhem Guirado, 1-Eddy Ben Arous.
Replacements: 16-Benjamin Kayser, 17-Uini Atonio, 18-Vincent Debaty, 19-Jocelino Suta, 20-Loann Goujon, 21-Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 22-Remi Tales, 23-Mathieu Bastareaud.
(Reporting By Brian Love, Editing by Sam Holden)
