Fly-half Frederic Michalak, suffering from the effects of a dislocated shoulder, has been left out of the French side for their RBS Six Nations clash with Italy on Saturday and is replaced by uncapped Biarritz stand-off Julien Peyrelongue in an otherwise unchanged team.
The 22-year-old got the nod ahead of South African-born centre Brian Liebenberg, who had been thought of as a possible replacement for Michalak.
"We talked it over with Liebenberg," said France coach Bernard Laporte. "However we felt he wasn't ready for it. He explained that he hasn't played fly-half for two years at Stade Francais," added Laporte.
Laporte revealed that 21-year-old Michalak could have played if they had given him an injection to relieve the pain.
"However we thought in the best interests of the player and his club that we couldn't do such a thing," said Laporte.
Peyrelongue, 22, was due to play for the France A side this week and will form a relatively inexperienced halfback partnership - the 19th under Laporte's five year stewardship - with Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who won just his fifth cap in the 35-17 defeat of Ireland last Saturday.
Before the Ireland match, Elissalde had only made four brief appearances as a replacement and he will have extra duties on Saturday as he will have to do all the kicking for goal as Peyrelongue is not a specialist.
Laporte, though, had no qualms about pitching the Biarritz fly-half into the fray against the weakest team in the tournament, who were thrashed 50-9 by Grand Slam holders and world champions England last Sunday.
"Peyrelongue is a very good player," said the 39-year-old. "The only small problem is that he can't kick for goal. However he is good both in attack and in defence and he has progressed a lot in his kicking out of hand," added Laporte, who was especially vexed by Michalak's positional kicking against the Irish.
Peyrelongue burst into the spotlight in 2002 when Biarritz won the French championship and is a former French Under-21 international.
Both of the players who made their debuts against Ireland -- hooker William Servat and lock Pascal Pape, who scored a try, retained their places ahead of the vastly more experienced Yannick Bru and David Auradou.
France: Nicolas Brusque (Biarritz); Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Damien Traille (Pau), Christophe Dominici (Stade Francais); Julien Peyrelongue (Biarritz), Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (Toulouse); Imanol Harinordoquy (Pau), Olivier Magne (Montferrand), Serge Betsen (Biarritz), Pascal Pape (Bourgoin), Fabien Pelous (Toulouse, capt), Pieter De Villiers (Stade Francais), William Servat (Toulouse), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais) Replacements: Yannick Bru (Toulouse), Jean-Jacques Crenca (Agen), David Auradou (Stade Francais), Thomas Lievremont (Biarritz), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Brian Liebenberg (Stade Francais), Pepito Elhorga (Agen)