Heavily beaten by Argentina and New Zealand in their November Test matches, Les Bleus are eager to get back on track when they start the 2005 tournament against Scotland on February 5 at the Stade de France.

Laporte, missing key players because of injuries, has called up reserve fly-half Yann Delaigue, Sebastien Chabal, scrum-halves Pierre Mignoni and Dimitri Yannick, Gregory Lamboley as well as Beziers' Yannick Nyanga and Brive centre Ludovic Valbon.

Nyanga and Valbon made their international debuts on the tour of Canada and the United States last year, while Lamboley has received his first call-up at the age of 23.
Laporte said: Our idea was not to make a revolution, a revolution would have meant that we changed all 22 players.

There are quite a few novelties, or returns, because we want to erase the mistakes we made against Argentina and New Zealand.

The Six Nations is a very important competition for us so there was no question of changing everything and endangering our potential.

No fewer than six key players have been injured in recent weeks and will miss out on the tournament kick-off, if not the whole competition.

Flanker Olivier Magne has damaged his foot and is expected to undergo an operation which will rule him out for at least three months.

Fellow flanker, Biarritzs Serge Betsen, has a thigh problem and has been ruled out of the opener plus the clash with arch-rivals England at Twickenham a week later.

Locks Yannick Jauzion (thigh) and Pascal Pape (ankle), No 10 Julien Peyrelongue (knee) and Biarritzs Nicolas Brusque (back) will also all be absent from the squad.

And Laporte added centre Tony Marsh to the list of injured men on Tuesday as the Clermont-Auvergne players shoulder continues to trouble him.

Team manager Jo Maso said: We also wanted to give the chance to players who have not played with us in a while.

It is logical also to try to see the squad evolve after the two defeats.

Thats maybe what we failed to do in November, after the loss to Argentina.

We should have maybe changed the team more and brought in fresh blood ahead of the New Zealand clash.

But we did not do it and we have learned our lessons - the objective is now to defend our title in the best possible way.

Laporte and Maso will announce their starting line-up on Tuesday at their training headquarters at Marcoussis.