Sébastien Tillous-Borde will be Lionel Beauxis' half-back partner for France in their Six Nations opener against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday. The Castres scrum-half gets the nod over Morgan Parra and will play for the first time alongside Beauxis for Les Bleus.

Elsewhere, there are recalls for the Toulouse team-mates Florian Fritz and Clément Poitrenaud, at centre and full-back respectively. Poitrenaud's inclusion means Maxime Medard moves to the wing where he displaces another Toulouse player, Cédric Heymans, who is on the bench.

In the forwards, Imanol Harinordoquy has been named at No8 at the expense of Louis Picamoles, while Sale's Sébastien Chabal retains his spot at lock where he will partner the captain, Lionel Nallet. Nicolas Mas is surprisingly left on the bench, with Benoît Lecouls preferred as prop.

The full France squad:

Clément Poitrenaud (Toulouse); Julien Malzieu (Clermont-Auvergne), Florian Fritz, Yannick Jauzion, Maxime Medard (all Toulouse); Lionel Beauxis (Stade Français), Sébastien Tillous-Borde (Castres); Lionel Faure (Sale), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Français), Benoît Lecouls (Toulouse), Sébastien Chabal (Sale), Lionel Nallet (Castres, capt), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz).

Replacements: Benjamin Kayser (Leicester), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Romain Millo-Chluski (Toulouse), Louis Picamoles (Montpellier), Morgan Parra (Bourgoin), Benoît Baby (Clermont-Auvergne), Cédric Heymans (Toulouse).