Wales vs France - Friday 21st Feb 8pm KO.

First topic message reminder :

Wales vs France - Friday 21st Feb 8pm KO.
 
Thought I'd start a thread seeing as our Welsh posters are few and far between this week.
 
 
Big, Massive, Huge game for both teams, how do you see it going?

1. Jenkins
2. Hibbard
3. Rhodri Jones
4. AWJ (c)
5. Coombes
6. Warburton
7. Tipuric
8. Faletau
9. Webb
10. Biggar
11. North
12. Roberts
13. Hook
14. Cuthbert
15. Halfpenny

16. James
17. Owens
18. A.Jones
19. Ball
20. Lydiate
21. Priestland
22. Phillips
23. Li Williams

 
 
News
 
- Wales centre Scott Williams has been ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations after injuring his shoulder in the 26-3 defeat by Ireland. (lesson to be learnt there for Mr Williams)
 
- Warburton and Gethin released to play for the Blues this weekend (Please note I used Warburton not WRUburton!)
 
- Guscott - "Wales should 'think about dropping Mike Phillips"
 
- "It's probably one of the worst performances that we've had since I've been involved," said Gatland.
 
- Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips has challenged One Direction's Niall Horan to train with the Welsh squad after the singer criticised him on Twitter.
 
- Ospreys duo Ashley Beck and Dan Baker called up for Wales training.
 
- Centre Jonathan Davies has been ruled out of Wales' Six Nations clash against France on Friday after failing to recover from a pectoral injury.  Osprey Ashley Beck, has also been ruled out.

Where were you guys after the Irish game btw, win or lose tomorrow I'd want to talk about my teams performance.

Wales deserved to win tonight but it wasn't a classic, the pitch a couple of odd calls, PSA game plan!, the time wasted resetting the scrums which btw doesn't do our game any favours when so many people might be watching for the first time due to the Friday ko.

nathan wrote:Going forward, what are peoples opinions on who should start at 9 for Wales?

I thought Rhys Webb was good, he has earned the shirt for now,

Long term, I like the look of Rhodri Williams

Steffan wrote:All together now:

~ Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus,
Aur y byd na'i berlau mân:
Gofyn wyf am galon hapus,
Calon onest, calon lân.

Calon lân yn llawn daioni,
Tecach yw na'r lili dlos:
Dim ond calon lân all ganu-
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos ~

*drumroll*

God save your gracious Queen....

nathan wrote:Going forward, what are peoples opinions on who should start at 9 for Wales?

Rhys Webb init like

wales606 wrote:

nathan wrote:Going forward, what are peoples opinions on who should start at 9 for Wales?

I thought Rhys Webb was good, he has earned the shirt for now,

Long term, I like the look of Rhodri Williams

I agree.

Rhys Webb was in sparkling form.

Great to see him do so well

Duty281 wrote:Forgot to add - most disappointed in captain Warburton not singing the anthem. Nothing like leading from the front, and the rest of the team (and crowd!) were singing it.

This isn't football you know.

Is there a law that you have to sing it? I notice the Irish players choose to sing one or the other, both or none. Same same???

wales606 wrote:

nathan wrote:Going forward, what are peoples opinions on who should start at 9 for Wales?

I thought Rhys Webb was good, he has earned the shirt for now,

Long term, I like the look of Rhodri Williams

Webb did well he added a bit of pace to the game, I hope Phillips starts vs england

Much needed win,

Warburton was very impressive (not quite sure how Gethin got MOTM)

Performance wasn't superb, but we kept chipping away until France broke (similar to the England game)

Ball and Webb did very well for their first starts,

Roberts is the best i've seen since 2009

Bench made an impact, particularly Paul James who really put his hand up in my book,

I still don't see why Preistland starts over Biggar

Griff wrote:As he didn't lose contact with the ball, could it be classed as part of placing the ball, which is legal? Not sure myself either. If his hand left the ball at some point then ached out and tipped it forward to touch the line then I guess it would have been a knock on. But often a player can slide with the ball and go over under momentum. Could this be classified under the same ruling???

You are permitted to push the ball in any direction when tackled, and if you apply the consistency rule of thumb and check what was allowed in all other areas of the field then it would've been beyond harsh to disallow the try.

I did wonder if Roberts hadn't benefited from the ball ricochetting back off the French players legs when he "kept control" in the suspected knock on in the earlier phase. However it was inconclusive and again would've been a harsh call to disallow it on that basis.

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Forgot to add - most disappointed in captain Warburton not singing the anthem. Nothing like leading from the front, and the rest of the team (and crowd!) were singing it.

This isn't football you know.

Is there a law that you have to sing it? I notice the Irish players choose to sing one or the other, both or none. Same same???

I'm all for this national pride lark.

You're captaining your country at your national sport. At home. Full house.

Those are the moments you live for.

Give the vocals both bloody barrels.

And there's no political divide in Wales, like there is in Ireland, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Duty281 wrote:

Steffan wrote:All together now:

~ Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus,
Aur y byd na'i berlau mân:
Gofyn wyf am galon hapus,
Calon onest, calon lân.

Calon lân yn llawn daioni,
Tecach yw na'r lili dlos:
Dim ond calon lân all ganu-
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos ~

*drumroll*

God save your gracious Queen....

What has your national anthem got to do with this folk song???!

Scrumpy wrote:

wales606 wrote:

nathan wrote:Going forward, what are peoples opinions on who should start at 9 for Wales?

I thought Rhys Webb was good, he has earned the shirt for now,

Long term, I like the look of Rhodri Williams

Webb did well he added a bit of pace to the game, I hope Phillips starts vs england

HERSH you should hope that Dan Coles injury is not as bad as everyone has predicted. Because at the moment that will make much more difference. You saw what Wales did to England's first choice scrum last year. Without first choice Cole, as well as Youngs and Vunipola out of form your chances look slim this year.

wales606 wrote:Much needed win,

Warburton was very impressive (not quite sure how Gethin got MOTM

I agree Warburton had a good game and was much more deserving than Gethin.

But then again it was jiffy making the call what does he know about the front row!

Duty281 wrote:

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Forgot to add - most disappointed in captain Warburton not singing the anthem. Nothing like leading from the front, and the rest of the team (and crowd!) were singing it.

This isn't football you know.

Is there a law that you have to sing it? I notice the Irish players choose to sing one or the other, both or none. Same same???

I'm all for this national pride lark.

You're captaining your country at your national sport. At home. Full house.

Those are the moments you live for.

Give the vocals both bloody barrels.

And there's no political divide in Wales, like there is in Ireland, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Sounds very subjective to me. Unless you're a dictator, and you've taken control of the UK in the last few hours, then I say leave it up to the choice of the player.

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

Steffan wrote:All together now:

~ Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus,
Aur y byd na'i berlau mân:
Gofyn wyf am galon hapus,
Calon onest, calon lân.

Calon lân yn llawn daioni,
Tecach yw na'r lili dlos:
Dim ond calon lân all ganu-
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos ~

*drumroll*

God save your gracious Queen....

What has your national anthem got to do with this folk song???!

I like to wind Steffan up. He likes to wind me up.

That was my poke. All harmless.

Long live your noble Queen...

Scrumpy wrote:

wales606 wrote:Much needed win,

Warburton was very impressive (not quite sure how Gethin got MOTM

I agree Warburton had a good game and was much more deserving than Gethin.

But then again it was jiffy making the call what does he know about the front row!

About as much as you by the sounds of it.

Warbs for me too. Scored a good try and industrious throughout.

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Forgot to add - most disappointed in captain Warburton not singing the anthem. Nothing like leading from the front, and the rest of the team (and crowd!) were singing it.

This isn't football you know.

Is there a law that you have to sing it? I notice the Irish players choose to sing one or the other, both or none. Same same???

I'm all for this national pride lark.

You're captaining your country at your national sport. At home. Full house.

Those are the moments you live for.

Give the vocals both bloody barrels.

And there's no political divide in Wales, like there is in Ireland, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Sounds very subjective to me. Unless you're a dictator, and you've taken control of the UK in the last few hours, then I say leave it up to the choice of the player.

Patriotism and national pride. Love it!

If I had my way...no better not!

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Forgot to add - most disappointed in captain Warburton not singing the anthem. Nothing like leading from the front, and the rest of the team (and crowd!) were singing it.

This isn't football you know.

Is there a law that you have to sing it? I notice the Irish players choose to sing one or the other, both or none. Same same???

The Northern lads won't sing our national anthem for obvious reasons...and well you can't blame anyne for not singing Ireland's call now can you?

Griff wrote:As he didn't lose contact with the ball, could it be classed as part of placing the ball, which is legal? Not sure myself either. If his hand left the ball at some point then ached out and tipped it forward to touch the line then I guess it would have been a knock on. But often a player can slide with the ball and go over under momentum. Could this be classified under the same ruling???

Not at all sure to be honest. I always thought sliding under momentum was OK as it's all one movement and we know moving the body a 2nd time to place the ball is illegal, but this is effectively placing the ball and moving it a 2nd time but not the body which is why I'm not sure where this stands re the laws. I always thought it was illegal but as the TMO allowed it I'm now not sure.

Duty281 wrote:

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

Steffan wrote:All together now:

~ Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus,
Aur y byd na'i berlau mân:
Gofyn wyf am galon hapus,
Calon onest, calon lân.

Calon lân yn llawn daioni,
Tecach yw na'r lili dlos:
Dim ond calon lân all ganu-
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos ~

*drumroll*

God save your gracious Queen....

What has your national anthem got to do with this folk song???!

I like to wind Steffan up. He likes to wind me up.

That was my poke. All harmless.

Long live your noble Queen...

I've got no problem with god save the queen being my national anthem. But I suspect you thought that the song quoted was the welsh national anthem. Which it wasn't. But you'll pretend you didn't think that anyway!!!

I have to give credit to Ball he must put some real grunt into the scrum, now I can't see why the Scarlets scrum has improved so much. Well done to Webb had a great game and gave much quicker ball to his 10 and his kicking was qualitiy rather the poor kicking from a poor 10 (but he tackled well for a change).

All the forward played well, the weakest link was North's tackling at centre. Good performance from Wales but still don't like the style played.

Interesting team selection against England at second row, we got away with the long ball in the line out but we may need AWJ for the line out, close call with Ball.

It is now up to Ireland to win the 6N, good luck.

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

Steffan wrote:All together now:

~ Nid wy'n gofyn bywyd moethus,
Aur y byd na'i berlau mân:
Gofyn wyf am galon hapus,
Calon onest, calon lân.

Calon lân yn llawn daioni,
Tecach yw na'r lili dlos:
Dim ond calon lân all ganu-
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos ~

*drumroll*

God save your gracious Queen....

What has your national anthem got to do with this folk song???!

I like to wind Steffan up. He likes to wind me up.

That was my poke. All harmless.

Long live your noble Queen...

I've got no problem with god save the queen being my national anthem. But I suspect you thought that the song quoted was the welsh national anthem. Which it wasn't. But you'll pretend you didn't think that anyway!!!

I know it's not the Welsh anthem, but I took a guess that it's a Welsh song of some description.

Yep, Webb was excellent. Reminded me of Aaron smith they way he sniped with a low centre of gravity and then threw those beautiful snappy passes out. Great to watch, added another dimension to Wales.

some surprising stats from that game

.............. Wales .... France
DB.............. 8  ......... 26
OL...............4  .......... 21

So on an individual level France did far, far more in attack. Shame they are such an awful, awful team because they have the players to be quite exciting. Doesn't say much for Saint-Andre.

On the other hand that is a bit of a reality check for Wales. They didn't need it tonight but they really could do with more threat in attack. I still think they aren't creating enough in the 6-10 area and that is making it very hard for their outside backs - they aren't getting any space to run into except off poor kicks and turnovers - in other words they have to wait for the opposition to make a mistake. It would really make a big difference to Wales if they could get quality attacking ball to North, Cuthbert etc. on their own possession!

Wales cannot win the Grand Slam, but they may be able too win the championship i know that, but, at the moment Ireland are the only team able too in a Grand Slam. But with Wales winning tonight, If England win tomorrow who will be in the lead on points difference.

Duty281 wrote:
I know it's not the Welsh anthem

Your just saying that though I bet you thought it was really   

Duty281 wrote:but I took a guess that it's a Welsh song

Was the fact it is written in Welsh a giveaway just out of interest?

Duty281 wrote:of some description

Nah just a folk song really about not needing a luxurious life just having a pure and happy heart   

GloriousEmpire wrote:Yep, Webb was excellent. Reminded me of Aaron smith they way he sniped with a low centre of gravity and then threw those beautiful snappy passes out. Great to watch, added another dimension to Wales.

My best memories of Wales in terms of attacking rugby (for a mid 30's pup) have been with Rob Howley and Dwayne Peel at 9. They were both tap and go, sniping runners who loved to play quick ball and also fizz it away quickly. Webb is more in that mould. But those ex players had poor forwards and retreating scrums to work with. We never seem to be able to get it all together at once (I.e. Decent forwards and decent half backs to get it away to decent backs).

Wales didn't create much today but caused more pressure because the ball got away quicker. The French back line had less time to set. Roberts got to the line running - 17 stone is much harder to stop at speed than when standing, obviously, so at last he got far enough over the gain line to stop the French being in place to compete at the breakdown or defend easily straight away. Which flattered our back row as clearing out was easy business. And so the plaudits for the back row followed. Simple rugby really. But Phillips' pondering seems to allow a few more seconds to let the defensive line set and prepare. And the backs getting tackled after receiving he ball standing still means the back row is on a hiding to nothing, and get no joy like against Ireland as they're last there and on the back foot.

majesticimperialman wrote:Wales cannot win the Grand Slam, but they may be able too win the championship i know that, but, at the moment Ireland are the only team able too in a Grand Slam. But with Wales winning tonight, If England win tomorrow who will be in the lead on points difference.

Ireland

Is that the version of the anthem
sung by John Redwood ?

-WAles kept it simple and cut France off at source.We did a job on Picamoles and stopped him from playing.France had no Plan B.A familiar story but an effective one.
Well done Gats and the backroom boys.

maestegmafia wrote:

majesticimperialman wrote:Wales cannot win the Grand Slam, but they may be able too win the championship i know that, but, at the moment Ireland are the only team able too in a Grand Slam. But with Wales winning tonight, If England win tomorrow who will be in the lead on points difference.

Ireland

England need to win by 14 to move ahead of Ireland in the table... quite achievable IMO

From a Welsh PoV, would be nice

RDSguru wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

majesticimperialman wrote:Wales cannot win the Grand Slam, but they may be able too win the championship i know that, but, at the moment Ireland are the only team able too in a Grand Slam. But with Wales winning tonight, If England win tomorrow who will be in the lead on points difference.

Ireland

England need to win by 14 to move ahead of Ireland in the table... quite achievable IMO

From a Welsh PoV, would be nice

It's a huge ask for England tomorrow.

maestegmafia wrote:

RDSguru wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

majesticimperialman wrote:Wales cannot win the Grand Slam, but they may be able too win the championship i know that, but, at the moment Ireland are the only team able too in a Grand Slam. But with Wales winning tonight, If England win tomorrow who will be in the lead on points difference.

Ireland

England need to win by 14 to move ahead of Ireland in the table... quite achievable IMO

From a Welsh PoV, would be nice

It's a huge ask for England tomorrow.

But not impossible. Rids all GS contenders, Welsh win at HQ a game later, Irish lose out in Paris after France are humiliated at Murrayfield... 3 times champions Wales  

A write-up that's going to rile up a few English!


Match Analysis
•Man of the Match: Gethin Jenkins was given the honour despite being shown a yellow card. But he put in the complete performance in the front-row and was a deserved recipient.
•Key moment: Leigh Halfpenny's first penalty in the second-half must have been a hammer blow for the French. They were finding their feet but Wales soaked up the pressure and punished them.
•Hero: It could go to Jake Ball, Luke Charteris, Dan Lydiate or Jamie Roberts but Sam Warburton was superb.
•Villain: Louis Picamoles' sarcastic applauding of Alain Rolland after the yellow card was poor.
•Talking point: This was a limp performance from France. They offered very little and lacked accuracy. They were bullied in the scrum and any progress they made in the past two games seems a distant memory.
•Special Mention: Alain Rolland. The Test was his last as referee and although he has courted controversy in the past, he has been a great servant to the game.
•Play of the Game: Sam Warburton's try was route one brilliance. Jamie Roberts made the break and managed to keep hold of it thanks to some contortionist-esque work. Warburton picked it up and stretched to get the ball down.
•Tom Hamilton

Read more at http://www.espnscrum.com/six-nations-2014/rugby/story/215617.html#TempEztdsgGKFeq5.99

Steffan wrote:Rev is not the brightest spark in the box to be fair

The news about AWJ not playing if true really hampers Wales chances of winning

Not the brightest spark as I don't get suckered into valleys rugby like you, you're right. Sadly it seems only you and Messymessina/Norfolklass seemed to miss the point of the post. Though it was perfectly explained. Still, I'm the one who isn't a bright spark   

Ask your mate Owen or Reardon to brainwash you again and explain the post if you can't get it xx

The Saint wrote:A write-up that's going to rile up a few English!

Hardly. The guy who wrote it is English.

Steffan wrote:Rev is not the brightest spark in the box to be fair

The news about AWJ not playing if true really hampers Wales chances of winning

How did that work out for you anyway Owen Smith MP? Really hampered us.

Steffan wrote:

Risca Rev wrote:

Taffineastbourne wrote:Wyn Jones to score first try 40/1!Get in there!

Unlucky  

Why is it funny if he is Rev???

Oh I see now. Selectively quoted me. Hard lines Owen.

Norfolklass wrote:

Steffan wrote:Rev is not the brightest spark in the box to be fair

The news about AWJ not playing if true really hampers Wales chances of winning

Its the self regarding conceit that amuses me.

Go Jake Ball !

Care to explain? If you can't understand why I laughed at the post I quoted, then more fool you. I'll accept your apology though, no worries.

I'll even do you a favour and save you a post.

Norfolklass wrote:Sorry Rev, it was blatantly obvious that you laughed at the fact somebody had posted AWJ was going to score and was ruled out. I can't find anywhere where you wished an injury on AWJ, nor posted anything other than fact in the post I stupidly took issue with and have been quite daft getting on my high horse again, without any reason to.

Next time, I will not be as quick to write such nonsense when simple things fly over my head

Cari wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Isn't a 5 min build up to this game a little crap from the BBC? Especially as before that we had room 101, hardly a classic.

I don't know if you've got Sky Yappy, but on BBC Wales we had a full half hours worth of build up

It was on red button on other variations. The rest showed the Winter Olympics.

majesticimperialman wrote:I would like to say well done Wales, a good score and a good game from Wales today.

I guess your six nations championship is now back on track. Really defence was the key today and the experiment with George North in the centre certainly paid off.

Gethin Jenkins certainly looked a lot fitter tonight, Sam Warburton played well, I thought JIffy was going to give Warburton Man of the Match to be honest.

Does the roof being closed make the ground more slppy? Their seemed to be a lot of players slipping with the ball in hand.

It didn't pay off per se. Didn't he miss a few tackles really?

Steffan wrote:Well done the boys. Did yourselves and the rest of Wales proud by BEATING France this year

Yeah, as we haven't done that for a while. Good hook that

Duty281 wrote:Forgot to add - most disappointed in captain Warburton not singing the anthem. Nothing like leading from the front, and the rest of the team (and crowd!) were singing it.

This isn't football you know.

Not overly a fan of players not singing the anthem, but they always justify it by saying they sometimes think about the game and their role etc.

Scrumpy wrote:Where were you guys after the Irish game btw, win or lose tomorrow I'd want to talk about my teams performance.

Wales deserved to win tonight but it wasn't a classic, the pitch a couple of odd calls, PSA game plan!, the time wasted resetting the scrums which btw doesn't do our game any favours when so many people might be watching for the first time due to the Friday ko.

Maybe as people can't be bothered with the poor wums that are allowed to post what they want at this time of year. Not everybody's first thought is to get on 606v2 ASAP Scrumps.

wales606 wrote:Much needed win,

Warburton was very impressive (not quite sure how Gethin got MOTM)

Performance wasn't superb, but we kept chipping away until France broke (similar to the England game)

Ball and Webb did very well for their first starts,

Roberts is the best i've seen since 2009

Bench made an impact, particularly Paul James who really put his hand up in my book,

I still don't see why Preistland starts over Biggar

Think Roberts has been good in both home games. I didn't get to see the Ireland game, but to be fair to Doc he's always a gain line threat and doesn't usually let us down

I thought the French backs looked more threatening with ball in hand than the welsh but they then made stupid mistakes.
Good defence by the welsh.
Stop start sort of game due to errors & penalties & France certainly didn't get the 50/50 calls.

It looked like it was - a game between 2 inconsistent sides.

BamBam wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:Cripe, I forgot the match was this afternoon, my time (-5hrs).  I kept thinking 8pm tonight.  I hope I can get home in time for kick-off.  I gotta fix some guys shoulder in a few minutes.  Maybe I will just shoot a couple of screws in the shoulder and tell the guy to come back when the 6 Nations is over.  

He'll be fine! Just tell him its either that or he can have it done in the few mins you have left of half time after going for a slash and restocking the beers

Damn, missed the match live this afternoon. The guy had significant damage in the shoulder which did not show on the scans (never trust the scans 100% boys and girls). The condition of the bony material showed signs of periodic malnourishment but the bloods couldn't confirm the hypothesis. Some of this is stuff they don't teach in med school. Decided on a partial rebuild of the joint. Took 5 hours and I ended up having to watch the match at home later. The guy doesn't know the sacrifice I made.

Either way, good on Wales. Strange in that they seemed to dominate, and most of the time were the better team, but that was not reflected in the stats (don't always trust stats boys and girls). Was a very good first half.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

Griff wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Forgot to add - most disappointed in captain Warburton not singing the anthem. Nothing like leading from the front, and the rest of the team (and crowd!) were singing it.

This isn't football you know.

Is there a law that you have to sing it? I notice the Irish players choose to sing one or the other, both or none. Same same???

The Northern lads won't sing our national anthem for obvious reasons...and well you can't blame anyne for not singing Ireland's call now can you?

I think Ireland's call is better than the other one you sing.

Atleast Ireland's call is trying to call (all of Ireland together) to come as one to fight the enemy that is the opposiston on the field of play.

wales606 wrote:
I still don't see why Preistland starts over Biggar

Tough call...! I think Priestland is more affective at getting the backline moving. Biggar's natural reaction is to kick, Priestlands to run.

The competition for the shirt is important, Biggar put in a great performance against Treviso last weekend and is in great shape. I guess that the coaches want continuity, though i would be tempted to pick either dependant on the opposition and the game plan.