Les Bleus will be looking to continue their impressive record against the Scots who have beaten them just once in the last 13 matches between the sides, a 20-16 success at Murrayfield back in 2006.

And Saint-André admits it would have been unfair on Dupuy to drop him from the squad having not had a chance to prove himself because of the postponement of the Ireland game.

He said: “We preferred to keep Julien Dupuy because Dimitri Yachvili is still handicapped by his lumbago problem.

“He couldn’t train yesterday, he’s uncertain for the Top 14 match this weekend and for us it made more sense to keep the squad together.

“Everyone did the preparation together. It was difficult to remove someone from the group.

“We told the players to stay on standby in case the match was moved to this weekend. “We asked them to keep their phones on. If the game had been moved to this weekend they would have met up on Sunday at ten in the evening.

“In one way it’s good but we would be obliged to go to Wales with one week’s less rest compared to our opponents. We still don’t know when the match against Ireland will take place so we’ll just concentrate on Scotland.”

France squad to face Scotland: 

Backs: Parra, Dupuy, Beauxis, Trinh-Duc, Mermoz, Rougerie, Fofana, Clerc, Malzieu, Médard

Forwards: Poux, Mas, Debaty, Attoub, Servat, Szarzewski, Papé, Nallet, Maestri, Dusautoir Bonnaire, Picamoles, Harinordoquy