Fickou starred in Toulouse’s Heineken Cup victory over Leicester on Sunday and takes his place alongside fellow 18-year-old and clubmate Christopher Tolofua, who made his debut for France at hooker in their summer Tour of Argentina.

As well as Fickou, the other uncapped players to get the nod are Eddy Ben Arous (Racing Metro), Yannick Forestier (Castres), Jocelino Suta (Toulon), Sebastien Vahaamahina (Perpignan), Pierrick Gunther (Toulon), Jules Plisson (Stade Francais) and Vincent Martin (Toulon).

Thierry Dusautoir continues as captain while Pascal Pape acts as his deputy but making way for some of the new faces in the squad are Aurelien Rougerie and Toulouse's Clement Poitrenaud.

“I wanted to stay true to what we've done in Argentina,” said Saint-Andre.

“We need to change generations. We were very happy the three centres we took to Argentina this summer.

“Aurelien just returned and has not played a lot of matches with Clermont.”
France begin their autumn internationals against Australia on November 10 before hosting Argentina and Samoa in the following two weeks.

FRANCE

Forwards
Nicolas Mas (Perpignan)
David Attoub (Stade Francais)
Eddy Ben Arous (Racing Metro)
Vincent Debaty (Clermont Auvergne)
Thomas Domingo (Clermont Auvergne)
Yannick Forestier (Castres)
Dimitri Szarzewski (Racing Metro)
Christopher Tolofua (Toulouse)
Benjamin Kayser (Clermont Auvergne)
Pascal Pape (Stade Francais)
Yoann Maestri (Toulouse)
Sébastien Vahaamahina (Perpignan)
Jocelino Suta (Toulon)
Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse)
Wenceslas Lauret (Biarritz)
Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier)
Damien Chouly (Clermont Auvergne)
Louis Picamoles (Toulouse)
Pierrick Gunther (Toulon)

Backs
Morgan Parra (Clermont Auvergne)
Maxime Machenaud (Racing Metro)
Frederic Michalak (Toulon)
François Trinh-Duc (Montpellier)
Jules Plisson (Stade Francais)
Maxime Mermoz (Toulon)
Wesley Fofana (Clermont Auvergne)
Florian Fritz (Toulouse)
Gael Fickou (Toulouse)
Vincent Clerc (Toulouse)
Yoann Huget (Toulouse)
Benjamin Fall (Racing Metro)
Brice Dulin (Castres)
Vincent Martin (Toulon)