Thursday 17 November 2016 11:54, UK
France coach Guy Noves has named Fijian-born wingers Noa Nakaitaci and Virimi Vakatawa in his side to face Australia in their second November Test at the Stade de France.
Vakatawa, who scored a hat-trick of tries in Saturday's 52-8 victory against Samoa, and his Clermont team-mate Nakaitaci will start alongside the impressive centres Remi Lamerat and Wesley Fofana, another Clermont player.
Noves has made five changes to the team which thrashed Samoa, with Nakaitaci coming in for Yoann Huget and Jean-Marc Doussain taking over at fly-half after Francois Trinh-Duc was ruled out of the series with a broken forearm.
In the back row, Charles Ollivon replaces Loann Goujon who is out injured while second rower Sebastien Vahaamahina takes Julien Le Devedec's place and prop Cyril Baille wins his first start in place of the injured Jefferson Poirot.
For all their firepower at the back, however, France will need to put on a huge defensive display if they are to beat the Wallabies for the second time in a row, having prevailed 29-26 in 2014.
"We suffered for the first 4-5 minutes against Samoa but we must know that it's going to be the case for 80 minutes against Australia," Noves told a news conference.
"So defence will be very important. We haven't seen many weak points in their team. They are impressive in the way they keep the ball."
Australia started their November series with a 32-8 win against Wales before beating Scotland 23-22 last weekend. They will then take on Ireland and England while France will end their series against New Zealand.
France: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Noa Nakaitaci, 13 Remi Lamerat, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Virimi Vakatawa, 10 Jean-Marc Doussain, 9 Maxime Machenaud; 1 Cyril Baille, 2 Guilhem Guirado (c), 3 Uini Atonio, 4 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 5 Yoann Maestri, 6 Charles Ollivon, 7 Kevin Gourdon, 8 Louis Picamoles.
Replacements: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Xavier Chiocci, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Julien Le Devedec, 20 Damien Chouly, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Camille Lopez, 23 Gael Fickou.