Laporte spares two in French clear-out

French coach Bernard Laporte has made a massive 13 changes to his starting line-up for Thursday's third/fourth-place play-off match against the All Blacks in Sydney. Just centre Tony Marsh and tighthead prop Sylvain Marconnet remain from their 24-7 semi-final loss to England.

Marsh has been reunited in the midfield with his former long-time partner Damien Traille and Yannick Jauzion drops out of the match-day 22, with Brian Liebenberg winning a place on the bench. But Jauzion's demotion is not the only change to the backline. In fact, it is one of six changes.

Out go fullback Nicolas Brusque, right-wing Aurélien Rougerie, left-wing Christophe Dominici (injured and retired), and halfbacks Frédéric Michalak and Fabien Galthié, and in come Clément Poitrenaud, Pepito Elhorga, David Bory, Gérald Merceron and Dimitri Yachvili.

Galthié has also confirmed his retirement from international rugby, giving his understudy Yachvili a run at No.9, while Michalak, who had a miserable day out against England, makes way for Merceron. Yachvili is likely to kick at goal for France, given Merceron's inconsistent performances with the boot.

Up front, injuries have claimed back rowers Imanol Harinordoquy and Serge Betsen (the latter has also been cited), giving Sébastien Chabal and Patrick Tabacco rare starts, but champion flanker Olivier Magne finds himself on the bench, with Christian Labit starting in the No.7 jumper.

Elsewhere in the forward pack, Thibault Privat and David Auradou will start in the second row, with Fabien Pelous providing cover from the bench. Marconnet will anchor the scrum again at tighthead prop, with the Toulouse duo of Yannick Bru and Jean-Baptiste Poux replacing Raphaël Ibañez and Jean-Jacques Crenca respectively at hooker and loosehead prop.

Bru, as he did against the USA Eagles in the pool stages, will lead the French side into battle.

France: 15 Clément Poitrenaud (Toulouse), 14 Pepito Elhorga (Agen), 13 Tony Marsh (Montferrand), 12 Damien Traille (Pau), 11 David Bory (Montferrand), 10 Gérald Merceron (Montferrand), 9 Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), 8 Sébastien Chabal (Bourgoin), 7 Christian Labit (Toulouse), 6 Patrick Tabacco (Stade Français), 5 Thibault Privat (Montferrand), 4 David Auradou (Stade Français), 3 Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Français), 2 Yannick Bru (Toulouse, captain), 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse).
Replacements: 16 Raphaël Ibañez (Saracens), 17 Jean-Jacques Crenca (Agen), 18 Fabien Pelous (Toulouse), 19 Olivier Magne (Montferrand), 20 Frédéric Michalak (Toulouse), 21 Brian Liebenberg (Stade Français), 22 Nicolas Brusque (Biarritz).

Kick-off: 20.00 local time (09.00 GMT), Live in the UK on ITV2