A mixed November, which saw France defeat Australia but lose to Argentina (24-14) and New Zealand (47-5) has forced coach Bernard Laporte to rethink the organisation of his team.

After the rout against the All Blacks, the France boss had already announced a series of changes ahead of the RBS 6 Nations.

And Servat, who was one of the few players to impress Laporte, could now take Imanol Harinordoquys position in the starting line-up.

"It's time to change things once for all, we cannot win with a forward pack that suffered so much against Argentina and New Zealand, said Laporte.

I don't want to blame the players whom I will always defend because I chose them.

But the honest thing to do is to admit that we made a mistake by not building up a competitive enough pack.

"We must also rebuild a scrum and find a better balance.

Servat might not be the best in a closed scrum but if we move him to another position it does not mean he is being punished.

He has a lot of qualities so we cannot do without his services.

He was the only one to play a level game with New Zealand so it could be a good idea to change his position.

Choosing Servat as a number eight would sideline Harinordoquy, but Laporte is confident the talented Biarritz player will bounce back.

He was not great (during the Test matches) and he knows he is going to have to question himself, Laporte added.

He needs more good matches with his side. But he is an intelligent man and I am sure he will fight back.

Meanwhile, Servat's manager at Stade Toulousain, Guy Noves, believes the player will be a good number eight - the position he was originally trained for.

Noves said: It will be easier for William to swap from number two to eight rather than the other way round.

Being a hooker is a very demanding job and he needed four or five years to learn almost everything.

Being back to a number eight could be felt as a liberation for him.

Laporte will announce his squad on January 25 ahead of their opener with Scotland at the Stade de France on February 5.