France will bank on experience and physical power for their Six Nations clash with England at Twickenham on 15 March.

Side-stepping the old mantra "never change a winning team", coach Marc Lièvremont announced four changes to his 23-man squad and one positional switch despite their thrilling 21-16 win over title holders Wales last Friday.

Three experienced players – centre Damien Traille, back row forward Julien Bonnaire and lock Jérôme Thion, who have won 152 caps between them – have been picked for the first time in the championship.

Florian Fritz is restored at centre after serving a three-week suspension for hitting an opponent against Ireland on 7 February.

Lièvremont has kept faith with young half-backs Morgan Parra, who is expected to start and will be the No1 goal-kicker, fellow scrum-half Sébastien Tillous-Borde, and fly-half François Trinh-Duc.

In the back three, France are expected to line up with Cédric Heymans, Julien Malzieu and Maxime Médard.

Centre Benoît Baby, who started the Wales game at fly-half, has been sidelined with an ankle injury and full-back Clément Poitrenaud has been left out.

In the pack, Thion and Bonnaire take the places of the young back-rows Fulgence Ouedraogo and Louis Picamoles, with Sébastien Chabal switching from the second row to the back.

"We are in a logic of rotation," Lièvremont said. "Traille, Thion and Bonnaire are members of our group even in they didn't play our first three games. They have proved through their performances with their clubs they were back at their best.

"Of course, it was painful to discard players after our performance against Wales but it was also easier because we were able to tell them they did not disappoint us and are still part of our group.

"As far as Chabal is concerned, we selected him as a lock for the first three games but we want to test him in the back row because we think he and Thion will bring us extra power against a powerful England pack."

France travel to Twickenham after wins over Scotland and Wales and a loss to Ireland. England have lost to Wales and Ireland and beaten Italy.

Forwards: Sylvain Marconnet, Lionel Faure, Thomas Domingo, Fabien Barcella, Dimitri Szarzewski, Benjamin Kayser, Jérôme Thion, Sébastien Chabal, Lionel Nallet (captain), Romain Millo-Chluski, Thierry Dusautoir, Imanol Harinordoquy, Julien Bonnaire

Backs: Sébastien Tillous-Borde, Morgan Parra, François Trinh-Duc, Florian Fritz, Yannick Jauzion, Mathieu Bastareaud, Damien Traille, Julien Malzieu, Cédric Heymans, Maxime Médard.