Lucu replaces banned France captain Dupont, Japan drop Matsushima

Scrumhalf Maxime Lucu will replace World Rugby player of the year Antoine Dupont in France's side to face Japan in the Autumn Nations Series this weekend, Les Bleus head coach Fabien Galthie said on Friday.

Captain Dupont will miss Sunday's game in Toulouse after receiving a four-week ban for a dangerous challenge in last Saturday's win over South Africa, a record 12th straight Test victory for the country.

There are two other changes from the Springboks success as loose-head prop Reda Wardi comes in for Cyrill Baille and lock Romain Taofifenua replaces Thibaud Flament.

Baille has been ruled out with a hernia and Flament suffered concussion last weekend.

Winger Damian Penaud starts despite pulling up during Thursday's training session with a knee issue.

Japan

Japan head coach Jamie Joseph said on Friday he had dropped ex-Clermont winger Kotara Matsushima to the bench for this weekend's Autumn Nations Series Test with France for "physicality reasons".Matsushima, who spent two seasons in the French Top, 14 weighs 178kg and has been replaced by 186kg-centre Shogo Nakano with 187kg Dylan Riley moving to the flank for Sunday's game in Toulouse."We want a bit more physicality," Joseph told reporters."Kotaro is a weapon on attack but on defence we're going to get a lot of pressure."Bringing him off the bench brings pressure off the team around those areas."Kotaro will impact the game later on when it gets a bit loose. He'll be dangerous," he added.New Zealander Joseph has made four other changes from last Saturday's loss to England.Scrum-half Noaoto Saito, fly-half Seungsin Lee, winger Siosaia Fifita, back-rower Pieter Labuschagne come in with Takuya Yamasawa, Yutaka Nagare, Gerhard van den Heever and Tevita Tatafu out of the