France will be seeking on Saturday to avenge the party-pooping 41-13 humiliation that Argentina inflicted on them in June having arrived there on the back of their first Six Nations' Grand Slam since 2004.

Argentina, though, have proved regular gatecrashers when it has come to taking on the French, not being content with just one victory over them at the World Cup they hosted in 2007 but doubling the agony when they trounced them in the third-place final.

The French are determined to make a better go of it than their desperate performance in Buenos Aires in June which left coach Marc Lievremont fuming and he was only a little bit appeased by a shoddy 34-12 win over Fiji last Saturday in Nantes.

Lievremont has made several changes to his line-up, recalling captain Thierry Dusautoir and given another chance to Sebastien Chabal at No.8, where he replaces Imanol Harinordoquy, who will not remember his first experience of captaining the side with great fondness.

Lievremont, though, has had to also cope this week with the unwelcome distraction of slapping down the bruised ego of outstanding flanker Fulgence Ouedraogo, who was displeased that he would not be taking part in the match with the Argentines in front of his home crowd in Montpellier.

"That he (Ouedraogo) wanted to play in Montpellier next to the club where he learnt to play Pic Saint-Loup, is normal. That he is disappointed, is normal," said Lievremont, who while praising Ouedraogo's performance against the Fijians had already made clear he would sit out the Argentinian game and return for the final match against the Australians.

"However, with regard to what I promised him, to what I expected of him, his reaction appears to me to be that of a spoilt child."

Dusautoir for his part has said he is determined to wipe away the memories of the Buenos Aires catastrophe which was the Pumas seventh victory in their last nine meetings with the French.

"There are certain strategic lessons to take out of that match," said Dusautoir, known as the 'Dark Destroyer'.

"After the pool loss to the Argentinians in 2007 we took refuge in focusing on avenging that defeat in the third place match and being very aggressive and the game totally passed us by and conceded nearly 40 points (the Pumas won 34-10).

"Thus for this match it is imperative we think first about the rugby, to be ready and prepared on our tactics, and to be crystal clear on what we want to do."

French scrum-half Morgan Parra replaces veteran Dimitri Yachvili after the latter scored 19 points against Fiji.

Argentinian captain Felipe Contepomi, who has replaced Agustin Pichot as the heart and soul of the side since the scrum-half retired after the 2007 World Cup, is determined that he and his side perform as well as they did in June in a match where he scored 31 of their points, including two tries.

"I think that it is the best match Argentina have played in the past two years," he told AFP.

"We succeeded with everything we tried, but that is indeed a rare match. Normally we would have committed a lot more mistakes.

"It is the perfect match that one produces in every 10 matches."

The French will be fervently hoping that is the case.

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