France ring changes for Georgia

France have made nine changes for their final Pool D encounter with Georgia in Marseille on Sunday.

Flanker Serge Betsen will captain the team as Raphael Ibanez is rested and Fabien Pelous will be on the bench.

"We took into account the need to rest some players and to keep the guys on their toes," manager Jo Maso said.

A win with a bonus point over Georgia would send France through to the last eight but to top their group they need Ireland to beat Argentina convincingly.

The Irish would have to win by seven points and run in at least four tries for the French to go through as group winners.

Coach Bernard Laporte remained optimistic that was a possibility and said: "Ireland and Argentina are on the same level. Everything could happen."

Scrum-half Pierre Mignoni and wing Christophe Dominici, dropped after the shock defeat by Argentina in the opening match of the tournament, were also named in the starting XV.

"Jean-Baptiste Elissalde performed well against Namibia and Ireland and we felt he deserved a rest. We also wanted to give a boost to Mignoni particularly as [Lionel] Beauxis will play at fly-half."

France: Clement Poitrenaud, Aurelien Rougerie, David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Christophe Dominici, Lionel Beauxis, Pierre Mignoni, Julien Bonnaire, Yannick Nyanga, Serge Betsen (capt), Jerome Thion, Lionel Nallet, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Sebastien Bruno, Olivier Milloud.
Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski, Nicolas Mas, Fabien Pelous, Remy Martin, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, David Skrela, Vincent Clerc.

Source: BBC Sport