New dad Danty to start against Springboks in Marseille

Centre Jonathan Danty has been named to start France's Autumn Nations Series Test with South Africa this weekend despite missing training to be with his partner and new-born son, head coach Fabien Galthie said on Thursday.

Danty became a father on Sunday for the first time and keeps his place in the team for Saturday's game against the world champions in Marseille.

He will return to the set-up on Friday in time for a final light session at the Stade Velodrome.

"He made the decision to join us for the team run tomorrow and play in the event which is a match against the world champions," Galthie said.

"For the gameplan and training, we sent him the documents.

"As you know, we keep things simple for big games," he added.

The only changes from last weekend's narrow win over Australia for next year's World Cup hosts are on the bench as uncapped pair Reda Wardi and Bastien Chalureau come in for Dany Priso and Killian Geraci.

La Rochelle loosehead prop Wardi had been serving a three week ban for a high challenge on Les Bleus captain Antoine Dupont while on Top 14 duty.

"We wanted to have him at the start but he was guilty of a dangerous tackle and was shown a red card which stopped him from coming with us," Galthie said.

"Once he was able to, we didn't hesitate in calling him up.

Lock Chalureau comes in for the injured Geraci after the 30-year-old lifted the European Challenge Cup and Top 14 with his club Montpellier over the last two seasons.

"We've followed him for two years since Montpellier have been transformed and taken a dimension that has allowed him to come into our changing room and claim a shirt," Galthie said.

"It gives us options depending on what happens in the match," he added.

Kick-off on Saturday is at 22:00 SA time.

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