French backrow injury concerns

According to the Beeb, the entire French backrow are all doubts ahead of the Welsh game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17342990

Bois bach, wonder how much this affects our chances? Though I do rate Picamoles more than Harinordoquy, Dusautoir is their biggest loss.

France have some very good replacements for the back row though - Oudraogo for example is a very dangerous player.

France could change the whole XV and play a lot better - Its France after all - Just keep the same 9 and 10 for me with Rougerie in the centre

Dusautoir will be the biggest loss.

PSA could have used this game to test a completely different backrow with nyanga-picamoles-ouedraogo (in which case honestly dont think we would miss Dusautoir that much) for instance, bring in fakaté on 2nd row (pierre is ok but not essential) , kayser at hooker and a "fresh" prop.
hope he doesnt start Palisson as he would be ran over by the big welsh wings. keeping rougerie and getting rid of malzieu who hardly did anything wrong is a mystery. nice to see Fritz and Buttin who is a very exciting prospect though.

Openside and 8 aren't really an issue either way, they have Ouedraogo and Picamoles who can step in respectively. But who gets called up to the bench in that case?

Blindside is more of an issue, no idea who could step into Dusautoir's shoes. I hope he makes it though tbh, was looking forward to Warbs taking him on. Can't we have one Wales-France game where both are fit and play 80 mins?

Quite a weakened side overall, shame as I'd always rather be tested against any team's first choice. Doesn't help that PSA has been a little reactionary and kicked out Malzieu and Mermoz.

Knowsit - the french backrow doesn't operate that way with openside and blindside. They play left and right.

Ouedraogo plays 6 as well

YESSS!

Sh!!! our english buddies will be saying we are having too much luck !!!

I'm interested to see Nyanga play, personally. Could be very dangerous

Louis Picamoles is immense. He may not be the athlete Harinordoquy is, but he'll still take some stopping.

Julien Malzieu has looked dangerous when he's been used properly - the disappointment for him is that he was only used properly once, against Italy.

Would Nyanga and Ouedraogo be effective in the same back row though? They both play a similar sort of game.

luckless_pedestrian wrote:Louis Picamoles is immense. He may not be the athlete Harinordoquy is, but he'll still take some stopping.

Julien Malzieu has looked dangerous when he's been used properly - the disappointment for him is that he was only used properly once, against Italy.

I've said it before, but I think Picamoles is potentially the best 8 in the world right now. He has the hands of a 12, and is one of the most devastating ball carriers in world rugby. Great in defence too. There isn't anything bad about his game really.

Rory, I'd say Harinordoquy is better in the air / lineout, but otherwise they don't lose anything by bringing in Picamoles.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Would Nyanga and Ouedraogo be effective in the same back row though? They both play a similar sort of game.

guess we would have to try it to see...

clearly we would lose a lot in the breakdown battle by getting Ouedraogo instead of Dusautoir. On the other hand, I see Ouedrago as more a ball carrier type of flanker while Nyanga is in my opinion a tackling machine. they are both very dynamic though but could be used differently.

It's a big maybe and I think they would have called up Nyanga, plus another as well as Ouedraogo to train with them this week if they truly feared that all 3 may not make it. With them only calling up Ouedraogo my guess is that at least 2 of the 3 will be fit enough to play.

Either way, as others have stated they are not exactly short of international standard backrow options, although it would be harder for a new player to learn the systems of the new coaching team.