France's fringe players have the chance to impress against underdogs Romania on Wednesday, but stand-in captain Dimitri Szarzewski has urged a much-changed line-up to put the team collective first.

Having started their Rugby World Cup campaign with a straightforward 32-10 victory over Italy on Saturday, France have just four days to recover for their second Pool D encounter.

With that in mind, head coach Philippe Saint-Andre made 13 changes when announcing his starting XV on Monday, with only Noa Nakaitaci and Louis Picamole retaining their places.

"We will have to be serious, play the game right to the end," Szarzewski said. "Sure it's a very important match but I do not think about individual performance.

"If we play individually it will be the wrong thing to do. We know the context, it's complicated four days after Italy.

"We do not have much time to prepare. The Romanians are fresh."

France were dealt a blow in the Italy game after winger Yoann Huget was ruled out for the rest of the tournament with an anterior cruciate ligament injury to his right knee.

However, Wesley Fofana returns to the line-up having missed the Italy match due to a thigh injury sustained in a warm-up match against Scotland.

The Clermont Auvergne centre's pace and quick feet will be important for France when they face bigger tests and he will get much-needed minutes against Romania.

Morgan Parra forms a half-back pairing with Remi Tales and is the likely option to take on kicking duties with Frederic Michalak named among the replacements.

Few are tipping Romania, who have appeared at every World Cup since its inception in 1987, to upset the odds against France having only won five World Cup matches in their history.

And head coach Lynn Howells says his team's preparations are being hampered by concerns over the balls they have been using in practice.

"Yeah [there is a problem]," he told ESPN. "The biggest problem with these are they aren't really kicked in. It certainly does take five metres off kicks out of hands and at the posts."