International: Uninspired France prove too strong for Argentina 'A' with 37-14 victory

Two tries from Clermont Auvergne winger Julien Malzieu helped France to a comfortable, if unconvincing, 37-14 win against Argentina 'A' in La Plata.

'Les Bleus' breezed into a 25-0 lead just one minute before half time, with Malzieu, fellow winger Marc Andreu and full-back Jérôme Porical all scoring at the Estadio de Vélez Sarsfield.

But Argentina grabbed a try back just before the break through Martin Bustos Moyano and then largely outplayed France in the second half as Marc Lièvremont's team appeared to relax ahead of next weekend's full Test.

Malzieu added a second try 15 minutes from time, with Stade Toulousain's Grégory Lamboley adding their fifth try on 79 minutes. There was still time for Argentina's second try when Miguel De Achaval touched down in injury time, with Moyano adding his second conversion.

The France head coach had completely re-jigged his starting XV from last weekend's 42-17 humbling by South Africa, giving fringe players the opportunity to stake a claim for the forthcoming Test against Argentina.

The only player to retain his place was Biarritz youngster Wenceslas Lauret, but unfortunately for the highly-rated youngster he is now a major doubt for the Pumas clash after being forced off with a shoulder injury.

Lièvremont may have been impressed by his new-look centre pairing of Lionel Mazars and Florian Fritz, while captain for the night Dimitri Yachvili was typically effective behind the scrum, but there were few other positives for the French coach. Fly-half David Skrela - who landed three conversions and two penalties - had an effective first half, and number eight Louis Picamoles was sporadically impressive, few will have forced themselves into starting XV for next weekend.

Argentina captain - and Stade Toulousain hooker - Alberto Vernet Basualdo was forced off injured in the 20th minute, being replaced by Eusebio Guiñazu.

France starting XV: Jérôme Porical (Perpignan); Marc Andreu (Castres), Florian Fritz (Stade Toulousain), Lionel Mazars (Bayonne), Julien Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne); David Skrela (Stade Toulousain), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz, Capt); Louis Picamoles (Stade Toulousain), Grégory Lamboley (Stade Toulousain), Wenceslas Lauret (Biarritz), Pascal Papé (Stade Francais), Julien Pierre (Clermont Auvergne), Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), Fabien Barcella (Biarritz)
Subs: Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Jean-Baptiste Poux (Stade Toulousain), Romain Millo-Chluski (Stade Toulousain), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), Morgan Parra (Clermont Auvergne), François Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Aurélien Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne)

France 'A', meanwhile, have also rotated their team ahead of their final Churchill Cup match in America on Saturday evening.

Scrum-half Julien Dupuy is one of only three players to keep his starting position following their 27-33 loss to Canada earlier in the week. Stade Toulousain's Maxime Médard returns as full-back, with Stade Francais' Julien Arias and Castres' Yoann Audrin on the wings. Romain Cabannes  (Castres) and Henry Chavancy (Racing) make up the centre pairing, with the Stade Francais duo of Dupuy and Lionel Beauxis making up the half-back partnership.

New Racing signing Antoine Battut starts at number eight, with Stade Toulousain's Sylvain Nicolas and Perpignan's Jean-Pierre Perez completing the back row. Guillaume Vilaceca (Perpignan) and captain Yoann Maestri (Stade Toulousain) make up the second row, with Twenty-year-old Rabah Slimani (Stade Francais) props alongside Yannick Forester (Castres), with Benjamin Kayser (recently signed by Castres) as hooker.

France's Under-20 side will play their Argentine counterparts in Santa Fe on Sunday in the play-off for fifth place at the IRB's Junior World Championships.

France finished second in their group after losing to England, but they did at least end their pool matches on a high as they scorched Fiji 44-9 at the Estadio CA Colon.

Philippe Boher's side led 13-6 at half time - thanks to a try from prop Benjamin Geledan and eight points from the boot of Gilles Bosch - before running riot in the second period. Number eight Antoine Erbani, son of former French international Dominique, began the rout, with winger Clément Lagain following in shortly after as the French assumed control.

Erbani added a second try later in the half, with the winger Hugo Bonneval grabbing France's final effort in the closing stages, while fly-half Bosch kicked 19 points in total.

France have now guaranteed themselves a top six finish for the third successive year, while hosts Argentina won through to the play-off after beating Wales 9-8 in a penalty shootout.

Finally, continuing the France-Argentina theme, the FFR has confirmed that a French Barbarians side will travel to Buenos Aires in November to the Pumas as part of the invitational team's 30-year anniversary celebrations.