6N Round 1: France v Scotland, 7 February

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FRANCE v SCOTLAND
Saturday 7 February 2015
KO 17:00 (GMT)/18:00 (local)
Stade de France, Paris

Live on BBC1.

Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)
Touch Judge 1: Glen Jackson (NZR)
Touch Judge 2: Mike Fraser (NZR)
TMO: George Ayoub (ARU)

A. Teams:

1. France

15 Scott Spedding (Bayonne)
14 Yoann Huget (Toulouse)
13 Mathieu Bastareaud (Toulon)
12 Wesley Fofana (Clermont)
11 Teddy Thomas (Racing Metro)
10 Camille Lopez (Clermont)
09 Rory Kockott (Castres)

01 Alexandre Menini (Toulon)
02 Guilhem Guirado (Toulon)
03 Rabah Slimani (Stade Francais)
04 Pascal Papé (Stade Francais)
05 Yoann Maestri (Toulouse)
06 Thierry Dusautoir (c) (Toulouse)
07 Bernard Le Roux (Racing Metro)
08 Damien Chouly (Clermont )

16 Benjamin Kayser (Clermont)
17 Uini Atonio (La Rochelle)
18 Eddy Ben Arous (Racing Metro)
19 Romain Taofifenua (Toulon)
20 Loann Goujon (La Rochelle)
21 Morgan Parra (Clermont)
22 Rémi Talès (Castres)
23 Rémi Lamerat (Castres)

2. Scotland

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors)
14 Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors)
13 Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors)
12 Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors)
11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby)
10 Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors)
9 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN (Gloucester)

1 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby)
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby)
3 Euan Murray (Glasgow Warriors)
4 Richie Gray (Castres)
5 Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors)
6 Rob Harley (Glasgow Warriors)
7 Blair Cowan (London Irish)
8 Johnnie Beattie (Castres)

16 Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors)
17 Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors)
18 Geoff Cross (London Irish)
19 Jim Hamilton (Saracens)
20 Alasdair Strokosch (USA Perpignan)
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh Rugby)
22 Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors)
23 Dougie Fife (Edinburgh Rugby)

B. Tournament Form (last 3 games):

1. France

15/3/14 - France 20 - 22 Ireland

8/3/14 - Scotland 17 - 19 France

21/2/14 - Wales 27 - 6 France

2. Scotland

15/3/14 - Wales 51 - 3 Scotland

8/3/14 - Scotland 17 - 19 France

22/2/14 - Italy 20 - 21 Scotland

C. Head to Head:

87 Played 87
50 Wins 34
34 Losses 50
3 Draws 3
153 Tries 132
78 Conversions 70
119 Penalties 127
28 Drop Goals 15
1,228 Points 1,049

Sorry about the spam guys - hopefully sorted it

Dammit, RDW! Knockoff Breitlings?

I was *this* close to getting my Christmas shopping sorted, eleven months early.

Opened on Christmas, broken by Boxing Day. Sweet.

Breitling Watches? So does McVisser.

But Mrs Pip won't let me.

Some grounds for optimism although the years are frightening; our last win and our last away win.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YDZclnDDdMo
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=75ulEljWOCg

I like Spam fried between two slices of buttered white bread .

Don't think I've done a 23 so I'll add my thoughts:

1 Dickinson 2 Ford 3 Cross: I think Cross has the edge in the loose.
4 Gray 5 Gray: No apparent reason to change since the autumn
6 Cowan* 8 Beattie 7 Watson: We want a quick game, so 2x7s is ideal

* Strockosch is only 3kg heavier than Cowan (according to Wiki...). Also I'd rather have Watson and Cowan - both very much in form - than a tier 2 French player.

9 Laidlaw 10 Russell
12 Dunbar 13 Bennett
11 Visser 14 Seymour 15 Tonks


16 Brown 17 Grant 18 Murray 19 Hamilton 20 Strockosch 21 Prygos 22 Hogg 23 Lamont/Fife

- I don't know if we want to throw Hogg in immediately - Tonks is a capable FB. We can bring Hogg on for some game time at ~50 mins.
- Don't want to drop Scott, but he only covers 12 really. At least with Lamont you get a Glasgow player who is more familiar with the Glasgow systems.
- Although Fife's kick chase has been excellent and he's been playing very well, in attack and defence. Tough one.

Has anyone else read the stunning exposé about Alasdair Dickinson's childhood in the Scotsman?
Apparently Al Dickinson, as a child, liked cake and they have concocted an article about it. Perhaps, like Christmas, the Six Nations build up starts too early and just like when the crap films come on just before Christmas, we have now reached the stage where even Laidlaw exclusively revealing that he likes to win games more than he likes to lose games and that if possible it would be better to win the championship than to come 6th is considered cutting edge interesting journalism and therefore it appears that we must content ourselves with the shocking news that front row forwards like cake, it must be getting for the likes of Allan Jacobsen, who did their utmost to hide that secret.

Yes, the BBC has made a whole feature in their interview with Tommy Seymour about the fact that he had a minor traumatic childhood experience with chicken. Bill McLaren - you are sadly, sadly missed.

I've got a funny feeling we're going to see some surprises in the team selection, particularly on the bench, and more accurately with Toolis and Hidalgo-Clyne.

VC knows exactly what he's going to get with Pyrgos and especially Hamilton, so might want to use this as a chance to see how others do.

Then again I could be completely wrong and he might want Hamilton's bulk and physicality, and Pyrgos' relative experience.

As for Watson/Blake, if Harley is injured then one of them will be on the bench, as there is no one else! My money is on him picking Blake, but I'd be very, very disappointed for Watson if he did.

123456789 wrote:I think this year should be a real marker of where Scotland is a rugby nation; we have very few excuses; our front row is decent and should gain parity in almost all games, second row is arguably the best in the tournament, and the back row we have so much depth yet almost always manage to screw it up, at 9 we are solid, we have a quality fly-half, 3 of Europe's best centres, and a back three capable of scoring tries from anywhere. We also have a decent coach and seem to have moved away from the idea of a self-destruct button being a necessity. If we have a poor Six Nations we have to stop the pretense that it is circumstance and luck standing in our way.

Anyway this would be my starting team:

1. Grant - It will be Dickinson but I still can't trust him
2. Ford
3. Murray
4. Gray
5. Gray
6. Harley - Would be Brown but Cotter has chosen not to pick him. The Vern giveth and the Vern taketh away
7. Cowan - Same as above but with Barclay
8. Beattie
9. SHC- it will be Laidlaw but I personally think he's too ponderous and not in the same league as Blair or Cusiter
10. Russell
11. Visser
12. Dunbar
13. Bennett
14. Seymour
15. Hogg

16. Dickinson
17. Brown
18. Welsh
19. Hamilton
20. Watson
21. Laidlaw
22. Scott
23. Lamont

Dickinson has been Excellent all season and was part of the MLF pack that butchered the soap dodging yes voters in the 1872 cup, including a proper man shaming of one of my favourite players "The Reverand" Euan Murray.

I'm not sure what else he can do to become trustworthy.

Dickinson IMO is one of the first names on the team sheet these days. How he'll get on against Mas is another matter.

I think the reason people think Dickinson will be awful is his bad spell covering TH. He is not a TH and was terrible at covering, but we shouldn't judge him on that.

French team is up:
15. Spedding
14. Huget
13. Bastareaud
12. Fofana
11. Thomas
10. Lopez
9. Kockott

8. Chouly
7. Le Roux
6. Dusautoir (cap)
5. Maestri
4. Papé
3. Slimani
2. Guirado
1. Menini

Replacements : 16. Kayser, 17. Atonio, 18. Ben Arous, 19. Taofifenua, 20. Goujon, 21. Parra, 22. Tales, 23. Lamerat

IanBru wrote:French team is up:
15. Spedding
14. Huget
13. Bastareaud
12. Fofana
11. Thomas
10. Lopez
9. Kockott

8. Chouly
7.  Le Roux
6. Dusautoir (cap)
5. Maestri
4. Papé
3. Slimani
2. Guirado
1. Menini

Replacements : 16. Kayser, 17. Atonio, 18. Ben Arous, 19. Taofifenua, 20. Goujon, 21. Parra, 22. Tales, 23. Lamerat

Who Cares - your thoughts and analysis please.

IanBru wrote:French team is up:
15. Spedding
14. Huget
13. Bastareaud
12. Fofana
11. Thomas
10. Lopez
9. Kockott

8. Chouly
7.  Le Roux
6. Dusautoir (cap)
5. Maestri
4. Papé
3. Slimani
2. Guirado
1. Menini

Replacements : 16. Kayser, 17. Atonio, 18. Ben Arous, 19. Taofifenua, 20. Goujon, 21. Parra, 22. Tales, 23. Lamerat

This has punctured my optimism bubble.

No real surprise here...unfortunately.
only good thing is that Mas is finaly not picked and we have Slimani at TH prop. Most the rest is rather uninspiring. I was hoping that Dulin who had a good game for racing last weekend would be back at 15 but seems like PSA prefered the boring Spedding option. PSA also missed the opportunity to pair both Clermont half backs (and put the castres on the bench) . was also hoping to have Nakaitaci on the bench instead of Lamerat (more exciting and also versatile).

Of all the players I fear the most Dusatoir is the most alarming. Our backrow could get blown away here.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Of all the players I fear the most Dusatoir is the most alarming. Our backrow could get blown away here.

A lot depends on Harley being fit. If he is, I wouldn't be so worried. If not, well...

Maestri and Jonny are exactly the same size - should be an almighty line out scrap.
Pape is 34 now - maybe we can out work him with two young locks facing off against him.

Guirado deserves a massive amount of credit for being a Frenchman who actually gets some gametime for Toulon. He should be dipped in bronze.

I read that Menini is really not very experienced and before joining Toulon didn't have much of a top division pedigree. I don't know much about Slimani other than the fact he is quite young and plays for Stade.

Chouly and Le Roux aren't very experienced in international terms either as I recall?

WhoCares - what do you think about your pack?

Captain_Sensible wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Of all the players I fear the most Dusatoir is the most alarming. Our backrow could get blown away here.

A lot depends on Harley being fit. If he is, I wouldn't be so worried. If not, well...

Dusautoir is not what he used to be and also adds little going forward. players like him and papé are in the team because of their status and experience rather thanreal form... if there was someone to feared in our back row it would have to be Le Roux. We also do not really have any real N8 which might be an issue.

George Carlin wrote:
WhoCares - what do you think about your pack?

not sure if Menini has fully recovered from his small injury but otherwise it's a decent front row. Slimani already has a few caps and never disapointed. they went for heavy in terms of locks so clearly are targeting the scrum.
I expect they will replace the full front row around the 60th minute with a much heavier one. The Scottish subs props might be feel the pressure.

I hope it isn't windy on Saturday - don't want Huget getting blown over now!

Am I the only one who thinks our Scrum could do quite well here? Sure the French locks are a couple of big units, but the Gray Brothers aren't exactly what you would describe as small second rowers.

I think we have the potential to be hammered in the lose in particular the contact area.

If that's the case, I hope we see a sensible bench that can cope with and at least match the likes of Atonio and Taofifenua, something like: Brown, Grant, Murray, Hamilton and Strokosh.

whocares wrote:

George Carlin wrote:
WhoCares - what do you think about your pack?

not sure if Menini has fully recovered from his small injury but otherwise it's a decent front row. Slimani already has a few caps and never disapointed. they went for heavy in terms of locks so clearly are targeting the scrum.
I expect they will replace the full front row around the 60th minute with a much heavier one. The Scottish subs props might be feel the pressure.

Blimey - the French picking players in form in their actual positions? Who'da thunk it

According to the bric-a-brac shop that is Wikipedia (usually inaccurate, but hopefully equally inaccurate for all players), the locks square up like this:

Jonny Gray - 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in), 119 kg (18 st 10 lb): Pascal Papé - 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in), 18 kg (18 st 2 lb)

Richie Gray - 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in), 128 kg (20 st 2 lb): Yoann Maestri - 2.02 m (6 ft 7 1⁄2 in), 121 kg (19 st 1 lb)

God bless Mrs Gray and her refusal to give the boys anything less than full fat milk with their 9 morning Weetabix.

It looks as if the front fives should match up pretty evenly in terms of bulk. Which only makes the composition of our back row all the more crucial. I think Beattie should start, Cowan looks to be one of Vern's preferred options so our weekend's pleasure is hanging on Harley's muscular frame.

Stade Francais are doing really well this year for a number of reasons. Certainly one of them is that their scrum is usually dominant, even on the road. Slimani is the best scrummaging tight head in France and getting better all the time in the loose. That is why he is ahead of Mas and Antonio.
Very strange selection of Lamaret, he was in tears after the Castres defeat to Toulouse last week!
Chouly may not play much at 8 for Clermont but that's because Fritz Lee is a better carrier from the scrum. However the other aspects of his game are top class: decision making, lineout, support play, work rate, close range carrying etc. . Think back to the try that beat England last year. it may have been finished by the backs but Chouly made it by straightening, taking a double tackle and the offloading brilliantly to the support player. Underrate him at your peril!

Interesting that Slimani is doing so well at tighthead - he's a small international tighthead at 5ft 10 and just over 17 stone. That's smaller than Dickinson!

Sounds like it will be a real technical battle between those two as opposed to brute force (if Dickinson starts).

yes but in France, we have a tradition of "pocket" props (think about Mas and Domingo recently). they tend to well at scrum time as they have a lower centre of activity (although it's less obvious with the change of rules and it seems they have been pinged more frequently since).

Interesting comments from Big Sergio:
http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/news/italy/27335.php

Looks like Oor Tommaso Allan may have backed the wrong cavallo.

17 stone stand off?

But then I read about him playing for Zebre so all in all, meh out of ten.

Quiet day and I'm going slightly crazy checking twitter for the team announcement, so I thought I'd go for my match day 23:

Dickinson
Ford
Cross
Gray
Gray
Harley
Cowan
Beattie
Laidlaw
Russell
Visser
Scott
Dunbar
Seymour
Hogg

Brown
Grant
Murray
Hamilton
Strokosh
Hidalgo Clyne
Lamont
Tonks

You kept Cotter waiting long enough! He'll probably announce that now shortly

You can check all you want, but don't think it is announced until tomorrow!

Ha. Really? Bloody hell. I was convinced it would be today, not least because the French had announced theirs...

nickj wrote:Quiet day and I'm going slightly crazy checking twitter for the team announcement, so I thought I'd go for my match day 23:

Dickinson
Ford
Cross
Gray
Gray
Harley
Cowan
Beattie
Laidlaw
Russell
Visser
Scott
Dunbar
Seymour
Hogg

Brown
Grant
Murray
Hamilton
Strokosh
Hidalgo Clyne
Lamont
Tonks

I'd go for pretty much the same team but with the following changes

Bennett > Scott
Scott > Lamont

reallybored wrote:

nickj wrote:Quiet day and I'm going slightly crazy checking twitter for the team announcement, so I thought I'd go for my match day 23:

Dickinson
Ford
Cross
Gray
Gray
Harley
Cowan
Beattie
Laidlaw
Russell
Visser
Scott
Dunbar
Seymour
Hogg

Brown
Grant
Murray
Hamilton
Strokosh
Hidalgo Clyne
Lamont
Tonks

I'd go for pretty much the same team but with the following changes

Bennett > Scott
Scott > Lamont

I really, really want to agree with you as Scott is such a good player, but feel that he, as with Bennett, should be starting or nothing. On current form Dunbar gets the shout over Scott. Unfortunately both of them only cover centre which limits the bench somewhat. Lamont can play wing, centre (to an extent) and full back so would probably get the nod.

When does the Scottish team get announced?

teh_Dingmeister wrote:When does the Scottish team get announced?

Presumably tomorrow lunchtime.

The SRU has chosen to focus on only critical aspects of the game prior to the weekend:
http://scottishrugby.org/news/15/02/04/it-time-geoff-said-bye-beard

Ryan Wilson statement on the SRU website; suspended without pay from training and playing for Glasgow for three months and unavailable for Scotland selection until the third World Cup warm up match.

A disciplinary panel made up of three members of the Scottish Rugby Board met with Ryan Wilson yesterday, January 4th, to consider the employment implications arising from the court case in Glasgow which concluded on January 27th.

After the hearing the following sanctions were imposed:
•Ryan Wilson is suspended with immediate effect, without pay, from training with, and playing for, Glasgow Warriors for a period of three months.
•Ryan Wilson will also undertake a programme organised through Glasgow Warriors and Scottish Rugby to support his personal development around the factors which contributed to the original conviction.

In accordance with Scottish Rugby's standard disciplinary procedures Ryan Wilson has the right to appeal against the panel's findings.

The panel had been separately delegated by the Scottish Rugby Board to consider the implications of the case for Wilson's future with the Scotland national team.
•It was decided Ryan Wilson will not be invited to play for the Scotland national team until August 23rd 2015.

This date is ahead of the third match of the 2015 World Cup warm up series following matches against Ireland and Italy on August 15th and August 22nd respectively. He will be permitted, if invited, to train with the Scotland squad only after the 2015 RBS 6 Nations has concluded.

Well, apart from seeming to have held the hearing before the court case was concluded, that seems a pretty clear cut response.
They've hit him in the pocket, doubtless made him very unpopular at Glasgow Warriors and excluded him from the 6 Nations.

Interestingly they have left open the door to the World Cup and also offered him help with his problem.
I think Wilson can either throw a strop and be nowhere near full fitness for either the WC or the start of next season's Pro 12 or he can knuckle down to some private training and be ready to prove the world wrong about him come August 23rd.
It'll be interesting to see (a) how the Warriors management decide to react; stand by him or dump him?, (b) how Batman himself deals with this .

The RWC matter isn't really that important as I don't think he'd be near the number 8 jersey - he's behind: Strauss, Ashe, Beattie, Denton...

Nematode wrote:The RWC matter isn't really that important as I don't think he'd be near the number 8 jersey - he's behind: Strauss, Ashe, Beattie, Denton...

Under those conditions I think an act of stupidity may have effectively ended Wilson's involvement with Test Rugby. He'll still have his uses at club level but he'll be really hard pressed to muscle his way back into the Scotland team.

As someone has already pointed out the sanctions are tough and they need to be, however the courts have punished him accordingly I'm not entirely comfortable with the SRU punishing him like this as well.

Drunk rugby player involved in a scuffle in a take away..... "shocker".

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

Nematode wrote:The RWC matter isn't really that important as I don't think he'd be near the number 8 jersey - he's behind: Strauss, Ashe, Beattie, Denton...

Under those conditions I think an act of stupidity may have effectively ended Wilson's involvement with Test Rugby. He'll still have his uses at club level but he'll be really hard pressed to muscle his way back into the Scotland team.

As someone has already pointed out the sanctions are tough and they need to be, however the courts have punished him accordingly I'm not entirely comfortable with the SRU punishing him like this as well.

Drunk rugby player involved in a scuffle in a take away..... "shocker".

Not so shocking when you consider that the 'scuffle' was actually assault, and a pretty nasty one at that by all accounts. The SRU has a responsibility to protect the image of the Scottish game. I've no problem with the decision, though it'll hurt Glasgow quite badly.

This smacks of Duncan Ferguson all over again. However, Wilson may take it on the chin, buckle down and come back a new man.

He's three months to mull it all over and decide whether he continues to act the wide man or put it in the past and fight for his career.

Semantics,

An Assault is any attack directed to a person whether or not injury was inflicted.

To clarify shoving someone is considered an assault these days. (My Wife's a copper so I have been forced to learn all this nonsense).

He's wronged himself and the other guy. No doubt. The courts have decided his fate. The SRU have a responsiblility to uphold the standards they expect. However suspension without pay IMO wasn't the way forward.

He should have been suspended, paid and helped if he has anger or alcohol issues.

As I said he is foolish for getting involved but his career is arguably in tatters now.

Furthermore none of us have any Idea what actually went down in the takeaway. He might have been provoked.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Semantics,

An Assault is any attack directed to a person whether or not injury was inflicted.

To clarify shoving someone is considered an assault these days. (My Wife's a copper so I have been forced to learn all this nonsense).

He's wronged himself and the other guy. No doubt. The courts have decided his fate. The SRU have a responsiblility to uphold the standards they expect. However suspension without pay IMO wasn't the way forward.

He should have been suspended, paid and helped if he has anger or alcohol issues.

As I said he is foolish for getting involved but his career is arguably in tatters now.

Furthermore none of us have any Idea what actually went down in the takeaway. He might have been provoked.

Agreed.

The fact that the press were making a joke of it by going on about Batman, red crayon etc. would indicate it wasn't as serious as first thought. If he'd glassed the boy causing severe permanent scarring, then perhaps the punishment would fit the crime.

But like you say, none of us were there.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Semantics,

An Assault is any attack directed to a person whether or not injury was inflicted.

To clarify shoving someone is considered an assault these days. (My Wife's a copper so I have been forced to learn all this nonsense).

So how many times did she arrest you for attempted boisterous canoodling before you got wise to the fact?

SecretFly wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Semantics,

An Assault is any attack directed to a person whether or not injury was inflicted.

To clarify shoving someone is considered an assault these days. (My Wife's a copper so I have been forced to learn all this nonsense).

So how many times did she arrest you for attempted boisterous canoodling before you got wise to the fact?

Well my initial chat up lines didn't need any boisterous canoodling. I simply said :

"Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?"

The rest as they say, is history.