Fabien Galthié named his final team of the season in Tokyo on Thursday, ahead of the third and last Nations Championship match against Japan.

To face Japan on Saturday (10.40am French time), in round three of the Nations Championship, the head coach has made four changes to the XV that won in Australia (42-26).

The main alteration concerns the front row, which is entirely reshuffled: Jefferson Poirot, Maxime Lamothe and Régis Montagne start, while Moses Alo-Emile and Demba Bamba drop out of the squad and Peato Mauvaka moves to the bench. Galthié makes no secret of wanting to rebuild a platform at the scrum. The last change is forced: ruled out with a shoulder injury, Oscar Jegou gives way to Alexandre Roumat, who starts at No. 8, with Marko Gazzotti moving to 7.

Behind, nothing changes. Matthieu Jalibert keeps the full-back shirt, Romain Ntamack the fly-half’s, with captain Maxime Lucu at scrum-half. On the bench, Paul Graou is preferred to Nolann Le Garrec and could win his first cap. The match will be refereed by New Zealand’s Ben O’Keeffe.

The starting XV: 15. Jalibert; 14. Attissogbé, 13. Brau-Boirie, 12. Moefana, 11. Grandidier-Nkanang; 10. Ntamack, 9. Lucu (capt.); 8. Roumat, 7. Gazzotti, 6. Nouchi; 5. Meafou, 4. Verhaeghe; 3. Montagne, 2. Lamothe, 1. Poirot.

Replacements: 16. Mauvaka, 17. Wardi, 18. Falatea, 19. Auradou, 20. Staniforth, 21. Tixeront, 22. Graou, 23. Gourgues.