Six Nations Championship:FRANCE - Coach Bernard Laporte has made five changes to his pack for Saturday's visit of Wales. Elvis Vermeulen replaces Sale's injured Sebastien Chabal at number eight, while Julien Bonnaire plays at openside flanker instead of Imanol Harinordoquy. Jerome Thion comes in for Pascal Pape at lock, while Olivier Milloud and Nicolas Mas replace Sylvain Marconnet and Peter de Villiers in the frontrow.
The three-quarters are unchanged with Aurelien Rougerie back on the bench.
Chabal, who played in France's opening victories over Italy and Ireland, limped out of Sale's loss to Wasps on Sunday with a leg injury.
His Sharks club-mate Sebastien Bruno is also dropped from the bench in favour of Biarritz hooker Benoit August, while Gregory Lamboley joins Harinordoquy in the replacements.
Meanwhile, France captain Fabien Pelous will miss the rest of the competition with an ankle injury. The Toulouse lock sustained the problem in a Heineken European Cup match against Llanelli in December, but was expected to be back for part of the Six Nations.
"Fabien can't run for three weeks and is out of the tournament," said France team manager Jo Maso.
FRANCE (v Wales) C Poitrenaud; V Clerc (both Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), C Dominici; D Skrela (both Stade Francais), P Mignoni (Clermont-Auvergne); O Milloud (Bourgoin), R Ibanez (Wasps, capt), N Mas (Perpignan), L Nallet (Castres), J Thion, S Betsen (both Biarritz), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin), E Vermeulen (Clermont-Auvergne).
Replacements: B August (Biarritz), S Marconnet (Stade Francais), G Lamboley (Toulouse), I Harinordoquy, D Yachvili (both Biarritz), L Beauxis (Stade Francais), A Rougerie (Clermont-Auvergne).
•SCOTLAND:Coach Frank Hadden has made one change to his starting side to face Italy in Saturday's Six Nations clash.
Lock Nathan Hines, who made his Test return off the bench against Wales, starts ahead of Jim Hamilton.
It will be Hines' 40th cap and his secondrow partner will be Scott Murray, who equals Gregor Townsend's Scotland cap record total of 82.
The only other change to the match-day 22 sees Andrew Henderson replace the injured Simon Webster on the bench.
SCOTLAND (v Italy): H Southwell (Edinburgh); S Lamont (Northampton), M Di Rollo (Edinburgh), R Dewey (Edinburgh), C Paterson (Edinburgh, captain); P Godman (Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Border Reivers); G Kerr (Borders), D Hall (Edinburgh), E Murray (Glasgow Warriors), N Hines (Perpignan), S Murray (Edinburgh), S Taylor (Edinburgh), D Callam (Edinburgh), K Brown (Borders).
Replacements: R Ford (Borders), A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), J Hamilton (Leicester), A Hogg (Edinburgh), R Lawson (Gloucester), A Henderson (Glasgow Warriors), N Walker (Ospreys).
