RBS 6 Nations: Poitrenaud, Bastareaud and Rougerie in France starting XV for Scotland

Head coach Marc Lièvremont has recalled Mathieu Bastareaud, Aurélien Rougerie and Clément Poitrenaud to the starting XV for for France's opening RBS Six Nations clash against Scotland.

All three were named in a talent-packed backline that also features young Bayonne winger Benjamin Fall (for only his second cap), experienced Stade Toulousain centre Yannick Jauzion and the half-back pairing of Morgan Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc.

Clermont Auvergne's Parra gets his starting opportunity in light of Julien Dupuy's eye-gouging ban, with Stade Toulousain's Jean-Baptiste Elissalde on the bench.

The pack is largely as expected with Montpellier skipper Fulgence Ouedraogo at number eight, alongside flankers Imanol Harinordoquy and Thierry Dusautoir - the captain.

Sébastien Chabal and Romain Millo-Chluski were both ruled out due to injuries, paving the way for a second row of former skipper Lionel Nallet and Stade Francais veteran Pascal Papé, with Clermont's Julien Pierre among the subs. Up front Lièvremont has gone with Nicolas Mas, William Servat and Thomas Domingo, with Dimitri Szarzewski and the uncapped Castres prop Luc Ducalcon on the bench.

His other replacements for Sunday's game are Julien Bonnaire, David Marty and Vincent Clerc. There was no place for Brive duo Alexis Palisson and Fabrice Estebanez - the latter after his first call-up to the French squad.

Lièvremont gave his backing to recalled Stade Francais centre Bastareaud, saying it was no up to the player to repay the coach's faith following the severe embarrassment caused by the 21-year-old when he falsely claimed to have been mugged while on tour with 'Les Bleus' in New Zealand last summer.

"Mathieu has to confirm all the good things we think about him," said Lièvremont. "He has been able to develop his game and is extremely interesting to us. We can only hope what happened in Wellington allowed him to grow up and mature."

Bastareaud - who is the cousin of Arsenal footballer William Gallas - has been in excellent form for his club of late, but will certainly want his rugby to do his talking throughout this RBS Six Nations Championship.

France will also be hoping that their performances continue the general upward trend of the last eight months, with Lièvremont's team - who finished third in the last two tournaments - being made the bookies' favourites for the title.

Scotland have included French targets Max and Thom Evans in their starting line-up, with former Perpignan scrum-half Chris Cusiter handed the captain's armband. Former club colleague Nathan Hines will start in the second row, with Stade Francais full-back Hugo Southwell among the replacements.

Record cap holder and points scorer Chris Paterson has been recalled to start at full-back, and will win his 99th cap in the process. Toulon's Rory Lamont misses out due to an ankle injury.

Head coach Andy Robinson said: "France have a fantastic squad The fact they defeated New Zealand in Dunedin last June illustrates that they can win and win well away from home. We're excited about the start of the championship but we know that we haven't won our first game in the competition since 2006, so all our focus is on making a winning start against France on Sunday."