France coach Marc Lievremont kept his faith in Sebastien Chabal for Saturday's Six Nations trip to Italy despite the backrow forward being slammed for his performance in the 17-9 defeat by England last time out.

Lievremont, though, made three changes to his starting lineup.

Two of those were in the pack, where Clermont flanker Julien Bonnaire replaces Imanol Harinordoquy and Sylvain Marconnet returns at loose-head prop taking over from Thomas Domingo.

Maxime Medard, who missed the 17-9 loss to England at Twickenham due to injury, comes in at fullback for Clement Poitrenaud.

The biggest surprise was with the dropping of Harinordoquy, who is widely regarded as being one of the best backrow players in the world, and the retention of Racing Metro powerhouse Chabal.

Chabal "has my full confidence" the coach said, adding that he failed to understand all the criticism that was levelled against him and winger Yoann Huget after the England game which wrecked French hopes of back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slams.

Indeed Lievremont said that the changes were all part of his overall plan for the World Cup later this year where he needed to have 30 players capable of delivering in New Zealand if the French are to at last win the Webb-Ellis trophy.

"We will really require 30 competitive players and these changes that we are trying to put in place for a while now are part of that," said the 42-year-old former backrow forward, who played in the 1999 World Cup final defeat to Australia.

"I think it is the only solution in order that we can be competitive in five really intense matches at the World Cup," added Lievremont, who was referring to their final two pool matches against Tonga and the All Blacks and the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

France opened the tournament with wins over Scotland and Ireland before the crushing defeat to England and will host Wales after the game in Italy.

"It's frustrating for us to see England going for the Grand Slam but we must stay in the tournament and aim for an honourable finish," Lievremont said.

"Playing away to Italy is never that straightforward. We have handled them well in the last two years, but we saw that the Italians came close to defeating both Ireland and Wales.

"If they lose against us they will be playing for the Wooden Spoon against Scotland, so we know that they are going to be full of determination."

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