France drop Chabal against Scotland

France yesterday made four changes to the squad who lost to Ireland for Saturday's Six Nations match against Scotland in Paris. Lionel Nallet remains captain, but Fabien Barcella replaces Lionel Faure on the left and Nicolas Mas will start instead of the injured Benoit Lecouls.

Florian Fritz stays in the centre even though he is due to appear before a disciplinary hearing today after being cited for allegedly gouging an opponent against Ireland.

Sébastian Chabal will be on the bench, while Cedric Heymans will play left wing instead of Maxime Medar, who will move to the right wing. "In Dublin, there were no individual weaknesses but a collective weakness. We wanted to make few changes with just a few logical rotations, especially in front," said coach Marc Lièvremont, who said he was confident that Fritz would not be punished for the incident. "We saw the pictures and for us, there is nothing significant," he said.