France coach Marc Lievremont firmly dismisses the accusation that he is treating his maiden Six Nations campaign with disrespect with the amount of players he has blooded.

The 39-year-old former France flanker handed three more players their debuts for Sunday's match with Italy among nine changes to the starting line-up that saw their Grand Slam hopes disappear a fortnight ago, losing 24-13 to England.

However, Lievremont - who was part of the France side that lost to Australia in the 1999 World Cup final having sensationally defeated favourites New Zealand in the semi-finals - insists that all the sides are being picked on form and that no player has earned a cap just for the sake of it.

"We have always fielded competitive teams this season and the players who are the best in their position," commented Lievremont, who has gone outside the usual fashionable sides from the start of his tenure and picked players from clubs such as Montauban, Albi and even present championshp bottom side Auch.

"For the moment this policy of rotating the squad has not done too badly, and what we may have lost in cohesiveness, we have certainly balanced in what we have gained in terms of the spirit."

One of the more interesting new partnerships Lievremont is set to try against the pointless Italians will be the centre pairing of Yannick Jauzion and Yann David - the former will be celebrating his 50th cap and first appearance under the new coach while the latter at 19 picks up his first cap.

The duo certainly have a more exciting look about them than the dour predictability of previous couple Damien Traille and David Marty - the latter having survived from an underwhelming World Cup.

Indeed Marty may have been given a farewell to the international scene in as much as that means from Lievremont when the former Stade Francais star spoke about the centres.

"Yann David is an admirable outside centre and we are convinced that alongside Damien Traille or Yannick Jauzion, he is going to be a marvel," said Lievremont, who if Wales slip-up against the Irish on Saturday could face a title decider with the Welsh the week after in Cardiff.

Lievremont's major problem in his admirable strategy of running the ball in stark contrast to the stolid, conservative and ultimately unsuccessful tactics practised by predecessor Bernard Laporte has been the alarming manner in which the scrum has been dominated by the Irish and then the English.

Once again he has made changes in an attempt to correct this serious weakness, for there is little point in adopting a running strategy if the scrum can't deliver quality ball.

Lievremont has, however, picked an incredibly raw backrow, opting to leave on the bench the experienced Julien Bonnaire and handing Montauban's 24-year-old Ibrahim Diarra his first cap, though he has retained Louis Picamoles at No 8 after the Montpellier tyro made an impressive first start agaisnt England.

"Ibrahim did not get capped at youth level," said Lievremont, one of nine children born to a soldier father and a devout Roman Catholic mother.

"He can jump really well in the lineout, he is powerful and is a real scrapper," added Lievremont, whose disciplinarian parents took a dim view of him once throwing a tantrum aged nine over missing an episode of Zorro because he had been on a walk with his father - they promptly sent him to bed and gave the television to an old people's home.

In the front row it is a case of 'Faure's Requiem' as Lievremont has dropped Sale Sharks Lionel Faure and handed a first cap to Auch's 24-year-old prop Fabien Barcella.

"Fabien is one of the best in his position where there is not exactly a lot of candidates," said Lievremont.

"He is an explosive fellow, both very good with the ball in his hands and in the scrum."