Hook in for injured Priestland

Warren Gatland has been forced by the injury to Rhys Priestland's shoulder to bring in James Hook at fly half.

With most countries in the world (New Zealand included), losing your first choice 10 and having to bring in a back up weakens you significantly. And whilst ideally we would have made no change, our top three fly halves are all incredibly good players.

Gatland told journalists:

"Rhys has done everything we have asked of him and more during this World Cup, but, when we have players of the calibre and experience of James Hook and Stephen Jones coming into the squad and starting line-up, there is no sense that Rhys's absence leaves us any weaker."

Hook comes in, who is a creative spark similar to Priestland, and Stephen Jones moves up to the bench, a veteran who holds the Wales record number of caps.

The change may hinder Wales as they try to flow faultlessly as they have been doing in recent games, but I believe once they become familiar with the new backline addition (which won't take long at all) they will be back to firing on all cylinders.

Hook is a fantastic player who brings a lot to the table personally, he is one of those players who can make something out of nothing, and he has a great boot on him, which will be vital. It will be fascinating to see how the Welsh team react on the field to this change.

Wales (from): Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues); George North (Scarlets), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Jamie Roberts (Cardiff Blues), Shane Williams (Ospreys); James Hook (Perpignan), Mike Phillips (Bayonne); Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Huw Bennett (Ospreys), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Dragons), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Dragons) Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt), Toby Faletau (Dragons).

Replacements (from): Lloyd Burns (Dragons), Paul James (Ospreys), Bradley Davies (Cardiff Blues), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues), Stephen Jones (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets).

France: Maxime Medard; Vincent Clerc, Aurelien Rougerie, Maxime Mermoz, Alexis Palisson; Morgan Parra, Dimitri Yachvili; Jean-Baptiste Poux, William Servat, Nicolas Mas, Pascal Pape, Lionel Nallet, Thierry Dusautoir (capt), Julien Bonnaire, Imanol Harinordoquy.

Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski, Fabien Barcella, Julien Pierre, Louis Picamoles, Francois Trinh-Duc, David Marty, Cedric Heymans, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Jean-Marc Doussain.