CHRISTCHURCH, July 2 (Reuters) - France ⁠have handed a debut to lock Tom Staniforth and ⁠brought back loosehead Jefferson Poirot, six years after he announced ‌his international retirement, for their opening Nations Championship clash against New Zealand on Saturday.

• Australian-born Staniforth, who moved to France six years ago, makes his Test ​debut at the age of 31.

• ⁠The 33-year-old Poirot won the ⁠last of his 36 caps in 2020 before stepping away from ⁠the ‌international arena, citing a lack of motivation after the 2019 World Cup.

• Winger Damian Penaud, who was left ⁠out of this year's Six Nations, also makes ​a comeback.

• Fullback ‌Max Spring gets his second cap, four years after his ⁠debut against ​the country his father hails from.

• In the absence of the injured Antoine Dupont, his scrumhalf stand-in Maxime Lucu captains the team.

• Eight ⁠of the team are drawn from European ​champions Bordeaux Begles as players from last weekend's Top 14 finalists – Toulouse and Montpellier – are not playing after joining up late with the ⁠squad.

• France opted for a 5-3 split on the bench between forwards and backs, with Clermont hooker Barnabé Massa expected to earn his first international cap.

Team: 15-Max Spring, 14-Damian Penaud, 13-Fabien Brau-Boirie, ​12-Yoram Moefana, 11-Theo Attissogbe, 10-Matthieu Jalibert, 9-Maxime ⁠Lucu (captain), 8-Marko Gazzotti, 7-Oscar Jegou, 6-Pierre Bochaton, 5-Tom Staniforth, 4-Hugo Auradou, ​3-Demba Bamba, 2-Maxime Lamothe, 1-Jefferson Poirot

Replacements: ‌16-Barnabé Massa, 17-Reda Wardi, 18-Regis Montagne, ​19-Mickael Guillard, 20-Killian Tixeront, 21-Nolann Le Garrec, 22-Antoine Hastoy, 23-Nicolas Depoortere.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Atlanta; Editing by xx)