The France head coach, Marc Lièvremont, has selected Benoit Baby at fly-half for Friday's Six Nations match against Wales in Paris. Baby, who normally plays at centre, was chosen instead of Francois Trinh-Duc, who was only called up on Monday as a replacement for the injured Lionel Beauxis and will start on the bench against the Welsh.

With Baby moved to No10, Lièvremont's other late call-up Mathieu Bastareaud will make his international debut at centre alongside Yannick Jauzion. With Morgan Parra coming in for Sebastien Tillous-Borde at scrum-half, France are going with an untried and inexperienced half-back partnership for arguably their toughest match of the championship.

Elsewhere behind the scrum, Maxime Medard reverts to full-back in place of Toulouse team-mate Clement Poitrenaud, with Julien Malzieu coming in on the wing. In the forwards, Sylvain Marconnet is drafted into the front row and will make his 72nd appearance for France, equalling the prop record held by Christian Califano. The Stade Francais veteran was called into the squad last week as a result of injuries suffered by Nicolas Mas and Benoit Lecouls.

In the second row, Sebastien Chabal returns in place of Romain Millo-Chluski and in all there are five personnel changes to the team which started the 22-13 win over Scotland a week and a half ago.

Lièvremont's choice of Baby and Parra means Les Bleus will go into the Stade de France encounter without a specialist goalkicker. Parra will take over kicking duties, something he has done only once before – against England in last year's Six Nations when he was successful with his only attempt.

Lièvremont insisted he was left with no choice but to go with Baby after first-choice fly-half Beauxis injured his back while playing for Stade Francais against Toulon in the Top 14 last Friday.

"We regret the withdrawal of Lionel Beauxis," he said. "Events therefore dictate our choice. We know it's not ideal. We need our best team against Wales. Francois only arrived on Monday.

"We think he (Baby) has all the qualities to play in that position even if he rarely plays there for his club. We have confidence in Benoit Baby."

The powerful Bastareaud has been in superb form for Stade Francais this season. He was called up following the withdrawal of Perpignan's Maxime Mermoz (quadriceps) and has been thrown straight into the starting line-up.

"We had to choose (who to call up) between Mathieu Bastareaud and Damien Traille, but Traille is ill and only played an hour (at the weekend) while Florian Fritz is still suspended," said Lievremont.

"Mathieu has the profile to come into this team and bring his determination and power. He has played well for Stade.

"And we are conscious he has only come into the squad four days before the match."

France team to play Wales on Friday:

Maxime Medard (Toulouse); Julien Malzieu (Clermont-Auvergne), Mathieu Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Yannick Jauzion, Cedric Heymans (both Toulouse); Benoit Baby (Clermont-Auvergne), Morgan Parra (Bourgoin); Fabien Barcella (Biarritz), Dimitri Szarzewski, Sylvain Marconnet (both Stade Francais), Lionel Nallet (Castres, capt), Sebastien Chabal (Sale), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz).

Replacements: Benjamin Kayser (Leicester), Thomas Domingo (Clermont-Auvergne), Romain Millo-Chluski (Toulouse), Louis Picamoles (Montpellier), Sebastien Tillous-Borde (Castres), Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Clement Poitrenaud (Toulouse).