France have recalled wing Christophe Dominici and scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili in an effort to avoid a fifth consecutive defeat when they meet Argentina on Saturday.
Yachvili and Dominici were in the starting line-up for the 47-3 first test defeat to New Zealand on November 11th, in Lyon, and came on as replacements in last Saturday's second test, a 23-11 defeat, at the Stade de France.
Coach Bernard Laporte named 34-year-old Dominici, who has made 54 appearances for France, ahead of Aurelien Rougerie. Yachvili, who has won 31 caps, replaces Jean-Baptiste Elissalde who is sidelined by a calf injury.
"We need some continuity. The recall of Dominici is the result of a turnover between our four high-quality wing three-quarters, Cedric Heymans, Aurelien Rougerie, Dominici and Vincent Clerc," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"We left Clerc with his Toulouse club because we didn't want to deprive them from their full backline but he will play as many games as possible during the Six Nations.
"As far as the halfbacks are concerned, Elissalde is injured, Yachvili is back. We called up Pierre Mignoni to the squad but Yachvili and Elissalde are our only specialist goalkickers when (flyhalf) Frederic Michalak is injured."
In the absence of lock Fabien Pelous ruled out through a rib injury, hooker Raphael Ibanez will captain the team as he did in the second test against the All Blacks.
"This match against the Pumas is the game which we musn't lose. We want the team to keep on improving after their catastrophic showing in Lyon and last weekend's better performance. It's important to ram the point home," team manager Jo Maso told reporters.
"Of course, we are under pressure but we'll also be under pressure when we'll travel to Ireland in February.
"We shall have to face Ireland, who have just beaten South Africa and Australia, and Argentina, who have recorded their first win at Twickenham and overcame Italy, in the first phase of the World Cup."
"Argentina will be our opponent in the opening game at the Stade de France. We must brand them on our pitch and end our streak of four defeats against them."
Laporte stressed that Argentina's four wins over France since June 2002 only proved "the worth of the Pumas".
"They have improved a lot over the last few years because they have a great generation of players who play club rugby in France and are regulars which means they are better than a lot of French players," he said. "We must respect them."
France -15-Pepito Elhorga; 14-Cedric Heymans, Christophe Dominici, 13-Florian Fritz, 12-Yannick Jauzion, 11-Christophe Dominici; 10-Damien Traille, 9-Dimitri Yachvili; 8-Elvis Vermeulen, 7-Remy Martin, 6-Julien Bonnaire, 5-Pascal Pape, 4-Lionel Nallet, 3-Pieter de Villiers, 2-Raphael Ibanez (captain), 1-Olivier Milloud.
Replacements:16-Dimitri Szarzewski, 17-Sylvain Marconnet, 18-Loic Jacquet, 19-Serge Betsen, 20-Pierre Mignoni, 21-David Marty, 22-Aurelien Rougerie.
