The defeats in Italy and at home to Wales pushed Saint-André into the decision, to make a radical overhaul, including a recall for half-back pair Morgan Parra and François Trinh-Duc in place of Maxime Machenaud and Frédéric Michalak.

As expected Thomas Domingo and Yannick Nyanga come into the pack, while Christophe Samson is preferred to Jocelino Suta in the second row and hooker Benjamin Kayser gets the nod over Dimitri Szarzewski.

And Saint-André has also restored Wesley Fofana to the centre, having started all of France’s November Tests, and the opening two games on the wing.

That move allows fit-again winger Vincent Clerc to slot into the back three, alongside Benjamin Fall and Yoann Huget.

Les Bleus find themselves without a win after two matches for the first time since 1982, and will be looking to record a first win at Twickenham since a 2007 World Cup warm-up game.

Saint-André said: “After two losses in the Championship we wanted to inject some competition and freshen up the team. We are going to be ready for a battle at Twickenham.”

France
15 Yoann Huget (Toulouse)
14 Vincent Clerc (Toulouse)
13 Mathieu Bastareaud (Toulon)
12 Wesley Fofana (Clermont)
11 Benjamin Fall (Racing-Metro)
10 François Trinh-Duc (Montpellier)
9 Morgan Parra (Clermont)

1 Thomas Domingo (Clermont)
2 Benjamin Kayser (Clermont)
3 Nicolas Mas (Perpignan)
4 Christophe Samson (Castres)
5 Yoann Maestri (Toulouse)
6 Yannick Nyanga (Toulouse)
7 Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse) captain
8 Louis Picamoles (Toulouse)

Replacements:
16 Dimitri Szarzewski (Racing-Metro)
17 Vincent Debaty (Clermont)
18 Luc Ducalcon (Racing-Metro)
19 Jocelino Suta (Toulon)
20 Antonie Claassen (Castres)
21 Maxime Machenaud (Racing-Metro)
22 Frédéric Michalak (Toulon)
23 Florian Fritz (Toulouse)