Sir Clive Woodward and Brian Ashton have been imbued, at some time or another, with the first flush of youth in their selections as England coaches. But they have been outdone by Marc Lièvremont, the France coach, the kernel of whose side in the Stade de France on Saturday - the half backs and No8 - have between them a mere five international caps.

In Morgan Parra, 19, and François Trinh-Duc, 21, he has selected the youngest French half backs to appear in the RBS Six Nations Championship and, before it, the Five Nations Championship. Yet such is the confidence that Lièvremont has in Parra, the Bourgoin scrum half, that he has picked him ahead of Dimitri Yachvili, who has caused England so much grief in the past.

His rationale is simple. Yachvili, who has only recently overcome a knee injury to play for Biarritz, was called into the squad on Monday after the withdrawal of Jean-Baptiste Elissalde with a strained calf muscle. Parra has been involved since the start of France's Six Nations campaign and is therefore farther down the road to what Lièvremont seeks from his team.

Parra, who captained the France Under-19 side, has been hailed as the next big thing at scrum half. The same might have been said of Frédéric Michalak, who was a scrum half for Toulouse before turning to fly half with erratic success and has now decamped to South Africa to play for Natal Sharks, but experienced pundits believe that Parra, 5ft 11in and 13st 5lb, has a shining future.

“Yes, Parra is young, yes, Trinh-Duc is young, as is [Louis] Picamoles [the Montpellier No8], but if their experience is not too much at this level, they have already had three weeks of it,” Lièvremont said. “These boys have been with us since the start of this adventure. Trinh-Duc and Parra have been impregnated by the philosophy we are trying to instil.”

Even if something is lost in translation, the tenor of Lièvremont's remarks are obvious. It is as though he is trying to bring back to France a traditional way of playing that was lost during the eight years in which Bernard Laporte was the national coach, when he appeared to be seeking an Anglo-Saxon rigour at odds with the national character. Lièvremont, of course, was a player at Stade Français when Laporte was the coach, so he has had time to contemplate, and apparently reject, his predecessor's methodology.

Not that this is an inexperienced France side. It has an aggregate of 354 caps, compared with England's 383, it is merely that the core of the side is so green. There is nothing wrong with the back three and the tight-five forwards have been tightened considerably with the omission of Julien Brugnaut, the Dax prop who struggled as a replacement against Ireland.

The preference at lock of Romain Millo-Chluski to the more experienced Pascal Pape (captain of France in New Zealand last summer) accorded with Lièvremont's philosophy of examining new blood until Millo-Chluski was ruled out with a damaged Achilles tendon yesterday. So Pape will play with Jérôme Thion coming on to the bench and Damien Traille will be first-choice goalkicker, a role he has seldom occupied for any team.

“It's true that he isn't a kicker by trade but we have faith in his talent,” Lièvremont said, a remark that holds good for the entire XV. “We feel that this team has only expressed itself in patches in these first two games [wins over Scotland and Ireland]. We know it will be hard, but it will be a good test for us, a bigger step again.”

— The previous record for France's youngest half-back pairing has stood since 1913, when Clovis Bioussa (19) and Philippe Struxiano (21) appeared against Wales in Paris and lost, but only 11-8.

The upstarts

The youngest half backs to feature in the Five/Six Nations

1 John Quirke (17) and Frank Gilpin (21). Combined age: 38, for Ireland v England 1962, lost 16-0

2 George MacPherson (18) and William Bryce (21). Combined age: 39, for Scotland v Wales 1922, drew 9-9

3 Richard Lloyd (18) and Henry Read (21). Combined age: 39, for Ireland v England 1910, drew 0-0

4 Windsor Lewis (19) and Wick Powell (20). Combined age: 39, for Wales v Ireland 1926, won 11-8

5 Willie Davies (20) and Haydn Tanner (20). Combined age: 40, for Wales v England 1937, lost 4-3

6 François Trinh-Duc (21) and Morgan Parra (19). Combined age: 40, for France v England 2008

Source: Stuart Farmer Media Services