French coach Bernard Laporte may pluck a page out of Wayne Smith's rugby coaching manual when he selects his team on Thursday for Saturday's Test against the All Blacks.

Several changes to the starting line-up, after the 1-1 series tie with South Africa seem on the cards for France's third Test in as many weeks.

All Blacks coach Smith made six changes after his team's 50-6 win over Samoa for the next Test against Argentina. His rotation policy seems to appeal to the French in their rebuilding phase.

They had several players, who missed out on the South African Tests, running in what looked like Laporte's Test team at training on Wednesday.

Laporte made it clear on arrival on Tuesday that the primary reason for this tour was to build a base for the 2003 World Cup. In the same breath he said he was looking for a win in Wellington on Saturday.

Laporte made at least 14 changes to his Six Nations squad for this three-Test tour of South Africa and New Zealand. Players such as Fabien Pelous, Abdelatif Benazzi, Franck Tournaire,
Christophe Lamaison and Richard Dourthe were notable absentees.

They were hit by injuries, forcing Xavier Garbajosa and Clement Poitrenaud out with Olivier Sarramea and Sebastien Bonetti coming in as replacements.

Laporte had intended to give all the 26 members of the touring side a game. After their 32-23 win over the Springboks in the first Test, he couldn't find a reason to effect any changes.

However, an error-ridden second Test, which they lost 15-20, and the long haul from South Africa to New Zealand in the week of the Test provided him good enough reasons to call in fresh players.

"It's hard on the players on this trip," captain Fabien Galthie said. "We arrived five days before the first Test in South Africa and then we had this long travel from South Africa to New Zealand one day after the second Test.

"It'll take a few days to get over the jetlag and adjust to the time difference - and at the same time we have to get over the effects of a hard Test match.

"I think we'll be coming right on Saturday but we have to face the All Blacks then."

Laporte said the crammed itinerary couldn't be helped. "The French Federation did ask for the New Zealand Test to be set back one week, but that proved impossible so we thought we'd learn more by playing the match than not playing it," he said.

After a disappointing Six Nations, where they lost three of their five games, Laporte wielded the axe. He brought at least nine new caps on the tour.

"It's certainly more difficult to play here (southern hemisphere) then in the north," he said.

France's new scoring ace Gerald Merceron could make way for the promising David Skrela, son of former French coach Jean-Claude Skrela, at flyhalf on Saturday.

Merceron scored 27 points in the first Test against the Springboks and all 15 for his team in the return clash.

Laporte had an entire new front row, including Christian Califano, Raphael Ibanez, Olivier Azam -packing down on Wednesday instead of Pieter de Villers, Ibanez and Jean Jacques Crencha. - Sapa-NZPA