France have called up veteran prop Sylvain Marconnet and again left out centre Mathieu Bastareaud in their 30-man squad for the Six Nations.

The 34-year-old Marconnet has 80 international caps, but played only one Six Nations match last year - the 33-10 home win against Ireland.

His presence will give France coach Marc Lievremont added toughness, experience and leadership.

"I have faith in him, his competitive spirit, his experience, his versatility," Lievremont said.

"He can play on the left, on the right. He may not be the Sylvain Marconnet of 10 years ago ... but I preferred him to less experienced guys."

Bastareaud played all of the Six Nations games last season, but was then dropped for Tests against Fiji, Argentina and Australia.

"There are better (players) today at outside center than Mathieu Bastareaud," Lievremont said.

"We can regret it, given his enormous potential."

David Marty was preferred to Florian Fritz at centre, and scrumhalf Julien Dupuy was also left out.

But Lievremont insists "they are not excluded" from an eventual return before he names his squad for the World Cup later this year.

France won the Grand Slam last year, but ended the season with a stinging 59-16 home defeat to Australia that rocked the team.

France begins their title defence against Scotland at Stade de France on February 5, then travel to play Ireland.

The loss to Australia, when France capitulated after being level 13-13 at halftime, has made Lievremont reassess his own leadership skills.

Lievremont says he needs "to be stricter, to be clearer" with his players and that the Australia debacle highlighted how there was "a collective failure" in his team to respond to the Wallabies.

"The highest level often comes down to small details that can have a dramatic importance when you're confronted with the very, very high level," Lievremont said.

"We came up against a team that was treading water that day."

Francesquad:

Forwards: Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Sylvain Marconnet (Biarritz), William Servat (Toulouse), Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Mtro), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Jr Thion (Biarritz), Pascal Pap (Stade Franais), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Sbastien Chabal (Racing-Mtro), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz), Alexandre Lapandry (Clermont).

Backs: Morgan Parra (Clermont), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Franois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Damien Traille (Clermont), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Maxime Mermoz (Perpignan), Aurlien Rougerie (Clermont), David Skrela (Toulouse), David Marty (Perpignan), Yoann Huget (Bayonne), Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Alexis Palisson (Brive), Maxime Mdard (Toulouse), Clment Poitrenaud (Toulouse)

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