France have included just six Super League regulars from Catalan Dragons in their reduced 19-man squad for Saturday's international against Wales at The Glyndwr University Racecourse Stadium.
Coaches Aurelien Cologni and Thierry Dumaine have retained 12 players from the French domestic competition from their original 24-man squad, including five potential debutants in Antoni Maria, Kevin Larroyer, Jeremy Guiraud, Stanislas Robin and Clement Soubeyras.
"We want to give the young players a chance," Cologni said. It's a chance to measure the work that lies ahead to become an international player.
"The high-level games are a unique experience and we believe that many of our French League players, given their season this year, deserve their selections.
"It would have been easy to take more players from Catalans Dragons to win more easily but that isn't our goal for this game. This mixture will be beneficial to us."
France squad: J-P Baile (Catalan Dragons), W Barthau (Saint-Estève XIII Catalan), Romaric Bemba (Carcassonne), A Bentley (Lézignan), K Bentley (Lézignan), T Bosc (Catalan Dragons), O Elima (Bradford, capt), M Griffi (Lézignan), J Guiraud (Carcassonne), K Larroyer (Toulouse), A Maria (Saint-Estève XIII Catalan), G Mounis (Catalan Dragons), M Pala (Saint-Estève XIII Catalan), E Pelissier (Catalan Dragons), S Robin (Villeneuve-Sur-Lot), C Soubeyras (Pia), M Simon (Catalan Dragons), C Stacul (Catalan Dragons), Y Tisseyre (Lézignan).
