Jacques Brunel insists "there is no reason not to blood" 19-year-old fly-half Matthieu Jalibert in Saturday's Six Nations clash with Ireland in Paris.
France head coach Brunel has named the rookie Bordeaux Begles playmaker into Les Bleus' starting line-up for the weekend's Six Nations opener at the Stade de France.
Jalibert has only featured in 15 Top 14 league matches with Bordeaux, but is now set for his Test debut against Ireland.
"Given that we believed he could play at this level (by calling him up) there is no reason not to blood him," said Brunel of the uncapped Jalibert.
Castres full-back Geoffrey Palis will also make his Test debut this weekend, as Brunel gears up for his first match in charge of Les Bleus.
Ireland have only won three times in Paris in 40 years, but Brunel has installed Joe Schmidt's side as favourites for the encounter.
Brunel added: "We are facing a side that is full of confidence having come out of 2017 with a lot of quality performances. We are not favourites but we hope that these two weeks we will have constructed a spirit or state of mind which will permit us to compete well.
"I am very happy that people either think we are not very good, even dreadful or just rank bad, and regarded as the fifth country in the tournament. That suits me very well."
— FF Rugby (@FFRugby) February 1, 2018
France team to play Ireland
FORWARDS: 1 Jefferson Poirot (Bordeaux), 2 Guilhem Guirado (CAPTAIN, Toulon), 3 Rabah Slimani (Clermont), 4 Arthur Iturria (Clermont), 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina (Clermont), 6 Wenceslas Lauret (Racing 92), 7 Yacouba Camara (Montpellier), 8 Kevin Gourdon (La Rochelle)
BACKS: 9 Maxime Machenaud (Racing 92), 10 Matthieu Jalibert (Bordeaux), 11 Virimi Vakatawa (Racing 92), 12 Henry Chavancy (Racing 92), 13 Rémi Lamerat (Clermont), 14 Teddy Thomas (Racing 92), 15 Geoffrey Palis (Castres)
REPLACEMENTS: 16 Adrien Pelissie (Bordeaux), 17 Dany Priso (La Rochelle), 18 Cedate Gomes Sa (Racing 92), 19 Paul Gabrillagues (Stade Francais), 20 Marco Tauleigne (Bordeaux), 21 Antoine Dupont (Toulouse), 22 Anthony Belleau (Toulon), 23 Benjamin Fall (Montpellier)