France spring surprise as Parra named for All Blacks clash

France coach Marc Lievremont sprung a surprise on Tuesday when he named scrum-half Morgan Parra to play at fly-half for the World Cup Pool A match against New Zealand here on Saturday.Parra takes over from Montpellier's Francois Trinh-Duc who played at No.10 in the opening wins over Japan and Canada. Parra will form a halfback pairing with Dimitri Yachvili, with whom he had been in competition for the No.9 shirt.Thierry Dusautoir returns as captain in a back row which also has Louis Picamoles and Julien Bonnaire with Imanol Harinordoquy on the bench. Damien Traille continues at full-back with Aurelien Rougerie returning to the centre to make way for Maxime Medard on the wing. Former skipper Lionel Nallet returns alongside Pascal Pape in the second row.Both France and New Zealand won their opening two games and the winner on Saturday is virtually assured of topping the group. Lievremont, who has been unhappy with his team's performances in the tournament to date despite taking the maximum 10 points from two games, brought in five new players from the team that finished strongly against Canada to win 46-19. In the pack Dimitri Szarzewski gets his first start of the competition replacing William Servat at hooker, while Nallet takes over at lock from Romain Millo-Chluski and Dusautoir returns to the back row in place of Fulgence Ouedraogo. In the backs, Medard and Yachvili both step up from the bench to the starting lineup. It will be 22-year-old Parra's first start for France at fly-half and Lievremont admitted it had been a difficult choice to make to stand down Trinh-Duc. "I think that Francois Trinh-Duc, after two matches when he was not at his best, pays the price and on the other hand Morgan (Parra) has been quite effective," the coach said. "For us it is a great honour to play this match, which is not like any other. I hope that my players will bring to it all the passion they have and that they will make us pround of them. "The summit of it all would be to play the All Blacks again later in the World Cyp final at Eden Park." Team (15-1) Damien Traille; Vincent Clerc, Aurelien Rougerie, Maxime Mermoz, Maxime Médard; Morgan Parra, Dimitri Yachvili; Louis Picamoles, Julien Bonnaire, Thierry Dusautoir (capt); Lionel Nallet, Pascal Papé; Luc Ducalcon, Dimitri Szarzewski, Jean-Baptiste Poux Replacements: William Servat, Fabien Barcella, Julien Pierre, Imanol Harinordoquy, Francois Trinh-Duc, Fabrice Estebanez, Cedric Heymans