France will be looking for a more clinical display at the Stade de France on Saturday when they take on Canada.
The hosts are sure to have studied last weekend's clash with the All Blacks with interest to see how they could be dominant up front and always pressing but not be able to make their superiority tell, not even when the tourists made life even harder for themselves by getting three men sin-binned!
France coach Bernard Laporte has recalled fly-half Gerald Merceron to his starting line up for Saturday's clash with Canada at the expense of Francois Gelez.
Merceron, the star of the French Six Nations Championship winning team, was left on the sidelines in favour of Gelez for their last two clashes with South Africa and New Zealand.
Gelez was the victim of some cruel luck against the All Blacks when lining up a possible match-winning penalty the fly-half appeared to run up to the ball, tap it and pick it up ... only for the referee Scott Young to decide he had to kick at goal and award a scrum to the All Blacks.
It later surfaced that the ball had in fact blown off the kicking tee - saving him some notable embarrassment.
Team manager insisted the decision to recall Merceron was based solely on merit and that the fly-half spot for the World Cup was still not confirmed.
Laporte has also drafted in Daniel Bory to replace wing Cedric Heymans.
The world's longest serving international player, Bob Ross, will start for Canada at flyhalf as he marks the occasion of his fiftieth cap.
Al Charron will captain Canada for the 22nd time as he earns his record setting seventy-third cap.
"Both of our outside-halves, Ross and Jared Barker, have qualities that serve our team well," says coach David Clark. "Bob has shown over his long career that he is a world class goal kicker, but in this game he may give us more tactical experience as he knows how to run a game. I think that the fact that he is reaching this milestone in his career, he deserves to start the game and not come into it from the bench."
Ross, who has played for Canada in three decades, began his career in the center against Ireland in 1989 and during that time has scored 360 points for Canada. Two hundred and eleven of Ross' points came between 1996 and 1999 when he was the Pacific Rim tournament's top scorer.
He is Canada's second highest scorer behind Gareth Rees with 492 and he captained Canada in 1998 against Japan and Hong Kong, but had retired from the international game in 2000 before returning to it two years ago to fill the void left by the injured Jared Barker. Since his return he has played in eleven internationals.
Charron's return, after his absence against Wales, is a welcome addition to the Canadian team and his inclusion at blindside means that Adam van Staveren will not start, despite a strong performance at openside against Wales.
Canada last played France in World Cup 1999 in Beziers losing 33-20 with the hosts holding a 4-1 record going back to 1978. In the 1991 World Cup Canada gave a spirited performance before falling 19-13. Canada's only victory came in 1994 in Ottawa when the Maple Leafs beat France 18-16 despite having only 14 men on the field for most of the game.
"At the moment France is close to being #1 or #2 in the world," adds Clark. "Playing them will be a very difficult task for us. They have a competent scrum and a good line-out, and the way they deploy their forces all over the field gives opponents few opportunities.
"We need to cut off their supply lines to the outside. We can match them up front and we may be able to score on the edges, but any way you look at it, it will be a hard day at the office."
France:
Nicolas Brusque; Vincent Clerc, Thomas Castaignede, Damien Traille, David Bory; Gerald Merceron, Fabien Galthie (c); Imanol Harinordoquy, Olivier Magne, Serge Betsen, Olivier Brouzet, Fabien Pelous, Pieter de Villiers, Raphael Ibanez, Jean-Jacques Crenca.
Replacements:
Jean-Baptiste Rue, Sylvain Marconnet, Thibault Privat, Sebastien Chabal, Dimitri Yachvili, François Gelez, Xavier Garbajosa.
Canada:
Winston Stanley, Sean Fauth, Nik Witkowski, John Cannon, Fred Asselin, Bobby Ross, Morgan Williams, Phil Murphy, Ryan Banks, Al Charron (c), Mike James, John Tait; John Thiel, Pat Dunkley, Rod Snow.
Replacements: Mark Lawson, Kevin Tkachuk, Jamie Cudmore, Adam van Staveren, Ed Fairhurst, Jared Barker, Marco Di Girolamo
Referee: Dave McHugh (Ireland)
Venue: Stade de France