The New Zealand captain Taine Randell last night warned France before Saturday's international in Paris that his side would be prepared for any acts of foul play having learned from experience on previous tours.

Randell, who last week taunted England about their alleged arrogance in victory, turned the heat on the French by dredging up reminders of their violent past, ignoring the fact that under the regime of the current coach Bernard Laporte players guilty of acts of indiscipline are automatically dropped from the squad.

"Having played at a time when maybe France crossed the line regarding physical provocation, we'll be a lot more wary and maybe savvy to that in this game should it happen," Randell said. "For us it will be a key to see how we do deal with it and we have to have more of the mongrel about us at forward."

The All Blacks have made five changes from the side which lost narrowly to England last week with Christian Cullen returning at full-back in place of Ben Blair, who missed the opportunity to score the winning try at Twickenham when he was tackled into touch four yards short of the line by Ben Cohen.

Three players have been ruled out through injury, the centre Keith Lowen, the fly-half Carlos Spencer and the scrum-half Steve Devine. Their places are taken by the players who replaced them at Twickenham, Mark Robinson, Andrew Mehrtens and Danny Lee respectively. Brad Mika takes over from Keith Robinson in the second row.

The return of Cullen, New Zealand's record try scorer with 46 in 57 Tests, is the most significant. Like the wing Jonah Lomu, he has become a peripheral figure since John Mitchell took over as coach last year but at 26 he still has time ahead of him. France have chosen the team which defeated South Africa in Marseille next week.

Australia's captain George Gregan rejoins his team-mates today after flying home for the birth of his daughter Charlie and will lead the side against England at Twickenham on Saturday.

Ireland's centre Brian O'Driscoll has been called into the squad for the Test against Fiji in Dublin on Sunday after John Kelly withdrew with a knee injury. The prop Reggie Corrigan, who like O'Driscoll was to have been rested after last weekend's win over Australia, has now been recalled after Paul Wallace failed to recover from an ankle injury.

Wales have called up the Lions Test wing Dafydd James after it was confirmed that Tom Shanklin will miss Saturday's Test against Canada.