France have made four changes to the side that defeated Namibia 87-10 for Friday's World Cup Pool D crunch match against Ireland at the Stade de France, but there is no place for wing Aurelien Rougerie.

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Coach Bernard Laporte recalled captain Raphael Ibanez, flanker Serge Betsen, prop Olivier Milloud and lock Lionel Nallet.

Ibanez suffered a throat injury when he came on as a replacement against Namibia but has been declared fit to play.

Sebastien Chabal, scorer of two tries against Namibia, will start the game in the second row alongside Thion.

Influential wing Rougerie is left out again however, having started the opening match of the tournament against Argentina before being dropped for the Namibia game.

France, Ireland and Argentina are vying for the two qualifying places for the quarter-finals from Pool D.

After two games Argentina and Ireland are on nine points with Argentina topping the group on points difference. As a result of their 17-12 defeat by the Pumas, France are third on six.

France team: 15-Clement Poitrenaud, 14-Vincent Clerc, 13-David Marty, 12-Damien Traille, 11-Cedric Heymans, 10-Frederic Michalak, 9-Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 8-Julien Bonnaire, 7-Thierry Dusautoir, 6-Serge Betsen, 5-Jerome Thion, 4-Sebastien Chabal, 3-Pieter de Villiers, 2-Raphael Ibanez, 1-Olivier Milloud.

Replacements: 16-Dimitri Szarzewski, 17-Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18-Lionel Nallet, 19-Yannick Nyanga, 20-Lionel Beauxis, 21-Yannick Jauzion, 22-Aurelien Rougerie.