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The Saracens player ruptured his Achilles tendon while warming up for Les Bleus before the Australia game in November 2000, - the injury keeping him out of the game for 20 months.
But the former Toulouse and Castres Olympique star was called into the French squad to face South Africa on the weekend when Toulouse centre/full back Clément Poitrenaud pulled out of the 22 due to injury.
New Zealand born centre Tony Marsh has since been ruled out with groin trouble and that means that Castaignà¨de will start the game.
Castaignede said it was 'a dream come true' to be playing for France again.
'It was sometimes difficult to believe I would play again. But physically I came back very quickly, I was surprised actually, and mentally I'm ready,' he added.
Toulouse centre Xavier Garbajosa replaces Marsh in the squad.
France:
15-Nicolas Brusque; 14-Vincent Clerc, 13-Thomas Castaignede 12-Damien Traille, 11-Cedric Heymans; 10-Francois Gelez, 9-Fabien Galthie; 8-Imanol Harinordoquy, 7-Olivier Magne, 6-Serge Betsen, 5-Fabien Pelous, 4-Olivier Brouzet, 3-Pieter de Villiers, 2-Raphael Ibanez, 1-Jean-Jacques Crenca. Replacements: 16-Jean-Baptiste Rue, 17-Sylvain Marconnet, 18-Thibault Privat, 19-Sebastien Chabal, 20-Dimitri Yachvili, 21-Gerald Merceron, 22-Xavier Garbajosa.
