6N 2017: France v Scotland, 12 February

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FRANCE v SCOTLAND
12 February 2017
16:00 CET (UTC+1)
Stade de France, Paris

Referee: Jaco Peyper (RSA)
Touch judges: John Lacey (IRE) & Luke Pearce (ENG)
TMO: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRE)

Live on [BBC, RTE, DMAX, FR2, ITV (H)]

A. Head to Head

90 Played 90
52 Won 35
3 Drawn 3
35 Lost 52
1,280 Points 1,102

B. Recent Form

13 March 2016
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
29 – 18 to Scotland

5 September 2015
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
19 – 16 to France

7 February 2015
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
15 – 8 to France

8 March 2014
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
17 – 19 to France

16 March 2013
Stade de France, Saint-Denis
23 – 16 to France

26 February 2012
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
17 – 23 to France

C. Teams

FRANCE 

15-Scott Spedding; 14-Noa Nakaitaci, 13-Remi Lamerat, 12-Gael Fickou, 11-Virimi Vakatawa; 10-Camille Lopez, 9-Baptiste Serin; 1-Cyril Baille, 2-Guilhem Guirado, 3-Uini Atonio, (captain), 4-Sebastien Vahaamahina, 5-Yoann Maestri, 6-Loann Goujon, 7-Kevin Gourdon, 8-Louis Picamoles,

Replacements: 16-Christopher Tolofua, 17-Rabah Slimani, 18-Xavier Chiocci, 19-Julian Le Devedec, 20-Damien Chouly, 21-Maxime Machenaud, 22-Jean-Marc Doussain, 23-Yoann Huget

SCOTLAND

15-Stuart Hogg, 14-Sean Maitland, 13-Tommy Seymour, 12-Huw Jones, 11-Alex Dunbar, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Greig Laidlaw; 1-Allan Dell, 2-Fraser Brown, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Richie Gray, 5-Jonny Gray, 6-John Barclay, 7-Josh Strauss, 8- Hamish Watson.

Replacements: 16-Ross Ford, 17-Gordon Reid, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Tim Swinson, 20-John Hardie, 21-Alistair Price, 22-Duncan Weir, 23-Mark Bennett.

He's got kidney damage so it may be a big ask for him to recover in time!

Scotland number 8 Josh Strauss will take no further part in the RBS 6 Nations Championship after sustaining an injury to his kidney.

The 30-year-old suffered a blow to his flank in the France vs Scotland RBS 6 Nations match on Sunday 12 February.

After completing the match, he was scanned in Paris. Both the scan, and the player, were reviewed at Spire Murrayfield Hospital back in Scotland, where the full extent of the injury was confirmed.

Strauss will now return to his club Glasgow Warriors for further care and a review of the injury will be scheduled in approximately six weeks’ time.

Fair play to him for carrying on.

Just saw that story. He was an absolute trooper against France. His ball carrying off the back of a retreating and disintegrating scrum was immense. I hope he recovers well.

That leaves us with a few questions for the Wales game. Du Preez and Bradbury both need to put their hands up against Leinster.

Mitch Eadie has done well for Bristol; could he be in with a shout of a call-up?

Damn that France game was just as physical as it looked! How come we seem to have these games in the 6N where we lose multiple players in one go!? Does the same ever happen to the other Nations?

So Harley, Bradbury and CDP you would think will be possible replacements now. I would say Harley is best positioned then CDP as they've been involved with the Scotland camp. I would say a backrow of 6.Wilson 7.Watson 8.Barclay and bench Harley. Perhaps Wilson and Barclay will be swapped. CDP, I think he should be in there but guess we'll see.

bsando wrote:Damn that France game was just as physical as it looked! How come we seem to have these games in the 6N where we lose multiple players in one go!? Does the same ever happen to the other Nations?

.

Em...yep. Happens to us all the time.

bsando wrote:Damn that France game was just as physical as it looked! How come we seem to have these games in the 6N where we lose multiple players in one go!? Does the same ever happen to the other Nations?

So Harley, Bradbury and CDP you would think will be possible replacements now. I would say Harley is best positioned then CDP as they've been involved with the Scotland camp. I would say a backrow of 6.Wilson 7.Watson 8.Barclay and bench Harley. Perhaps Wilson and Barclay will be swapped. CDP, I think he should be in there but guess we'll see.

That's probably the correct decision on form, but it really does lack a bit of oomph in the ball carrying stakes. A stiff breeze will knock over Wilson, and whilst Watson is a great carrier given his size, he's not going to truck through the sort of heavy traffic we'll face with Wales (who may well pick AWJ, Ball, Moriarty and Faletau). That leaves Barclay, who is a far better player without the ball. I realise ball carrying is a team effort, but we're asking a massive amount from the Gray brothers with that back row.

We sorely need Du Preez to rapidly re-discover his mojo, or for Bradbury or Denton to step back up.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

bsando wrote:Damn that France game was just as physical as it looked! How come we seem to have these games in the 6N where we lose multiple players in one go!? Does the same ever happen to the other Nations?

So Harley, Bradbury and CDP you would think will be possible replacements now. I would say Harley is best positioned then CDP as they've been involved with the Scotland camp. I would say a backrow of 6.Wilson 7.Watson 8.Barclay and bench Harley. Perhaps Wilson and Barclay will be swapped. CDP, I think he should be in there but guess we'll see.

That's probably the correct decision on form, but it really does lack a bit of oomph in the ball carrying stakes. A stiff breeze will knock over Wilson, and whilst Watson is a great carrier given his size, he's not going to truck through the sort of heavy traffic we'll face with Wales (who may well pick AWJ, Ball, Moriarty and Faletau). That leaves Barclay, who is a far better player without the ball. I realise ball carrying is a team effort, but we're asking a massive amount from the Gray brothers with that back row.

We sorely need Du Preez to rapidly re-discover his mojo, or for Bradbury or Denton to step back up.

I suspect you might see Ashe in the mix as well, if he has a good run against Ulster.

Fair point. Ashe is talented, he just needs a run of games.

Its all to play for. I see Denton starts this week at blind side for Bath, after two runs off the bench, as do CDP and Adam Ashe and Bradbury. You would like to think that one of them will have to come in at No.8 and maybe another to bench. They can get away with it at club level but neither Wilson nor Barclay is an international ball carrying No.8.

I would be amazed if one of those players does not start and possibly another warms the pine. It is hard to see Hardie being fit in time for this one, he looked really groogy when he went off, it really was a nasty clash of heads.

Going to watch all these games now over the weekend with great interest. Even the Sarries v Gloucester one tonight should through up a few interesting sub plots. Duncan Taylor is playing full back for Sarries and matt Scott is in the centre for Gloucester.

a backrow of Barclay, Wilson and Watson is a bit lightweight for my liking

I can't see Barclay being fit

RDW_Scotland wrote:I can't see Barclay being fit

Yeah, he's not playing for Scarlets this weekend - hardly a surprise I suppose, but I'm really wary of trying to push players back in after head knocks. We should presume he won't play unless the head knock really wasn't very serious.

IanBru wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:I can't see Barclay being fit

Yeah, he's not playing for Scarlets this weekend - hardly a surprise I suppose, but I'm really wary of trying to push players back in after head knocks. We should presume he won't play unless the head knock really wasn't very serious.

I think it may well be the shoulder injury that keeps him out rather than the head knock, he did not seem to be to bad coming off and from that point of view looked fine after the match.

Surely Bradbury will get the nod given we need a ball carrier? Plus he's been playing regularly for Edinburgh and is already capped!

Wilson at 6, Bradbury at 8 and Watson on the openside

CDP to bench to cover 6 and 8. If Watson comes a cropper then Wilson moves to openside?

Well this changes things, our first choice props, captain and kicker and now biggest ball carrier all out. BigGee is right in noting that we have a lot of options at 8, unfortunately none of them present a particularly obvious case for selection.

Ashe has a lot to do to convince me he has what it takes to be an international 8 and he is coming back from a long injury, Denton never has been good enough, and I think it's too much to ask of Bradbury. If it was me, I would have to go for CDP - he has the pedigree, physicality and ability....albeit he hasn't shown it this year. Gotta hope the occasion propels him into better form.

Wilson
Watson
CDP

Barclay (if fit). Hardie if Barclay is out (if fit). Bradbury if both of them are done.

denton ?

Encouraging bit of news, for a change
http://rbs6nations.com/en/news/31121.php#1cM78fi5kyAA1myj.97

I watched the Bath game yesterday evening and Denton played pretty well and put himself about a fair bit before being subbed at around 60 mins. That is his third game into his comeback and he looks to be picking up quite nicely.

I would say that he was more effective than CDP, Bradbury or Ashe, none of whom did their cases much good in the poor performances for both the Scottish sides.

So probably

6 Barclay
7 Watson
8 Wilson

Then with CDP on the bench given he's already been I'm the training squad?

RDW_Scotland wrote:So probably

6 Barclay
7 Watson
8 Wilson

Then with CDP on the bench given he's already been I'm the training squad?

I think that's about as good as we can do at the moment and the starters are all in good form. It's a very fast trio and neither Warbuton nor Tipuric are huge guys, so lack of size probably matters less here than it does for our other 6N matches. 

Amazing how vital John Barclay looks to that loose forward trio now. He probably has more recent experience at 8 than Wilson, so I wouldn't be shocked if that's where he's chosen although I'm sure they'll work out in training who is happiest controlling a (rapidly retreating) scrum from the back. 

I have a lot of faith in CDP being a test match animal (copyright Ian McGeechan) and I would have no issue with picking him for the bench. 

I guess that the Ginger Tackle Monster could be asked to step up again but I wouldn't have him as a replacement for any of the 4 noted above.

George Carlin wrote:

I have a lot of faith in CDP being a test match animal (copyright Ian McGeechan) and I would have no issue with picking him for the bench. 

He did not look like a test match animal on Friday night. I actually thought he looked quite disinterested at times. Test caps need to be earned and he is not currently earning a call up. I say that as someone who has thought that he has been a fantastic player for Edinburgh over the past three years, trying hard even when the rest of the side was dross.

You may well be right and he will get his chance this time but it is all a bit odd really, you would have thought he would have seen his chance and been champing at the bit. He was most definitely not doing that.

BigGee wrote:

George Carlin wrote:

I have a lot of faith in CDP being a test match animal (copyright Ian McGeechan) and I would have no issue with picking him for the bench. 

He did not look like a test match animal on Friday night. I actually thought he looked quite disinterested at times. Test caps need to be earned and he is not currently earning a call up. I say that as someone who has thought that he has been a fantastic player for Edinburgh over the past three years, trying hard even when the rest of the side was dross.

You may well be right and he will get his chance this time but it is all a bit odd really, you would have thought he would have seen his chance and been champing at the bit. He was most definitely not doing that.

All true Gee, but christ on a Sedgeway, it must be depressing playing for that Edinburgh side. 

Richie Gray looked pretty flat playing for Sale and Maitland looked a bit mince playing for Irish. 

Have to try and see the potential behind the player in a failing team.

Having watched Edinburgh this season I think Bradbury is definitely ready and will be the future for Scotland at 8. I think he hasn't been as effective starting at 6 and impresses most at the back of the scrum.

If he is the best option, should his age really matter?

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Having watched Edinburgh this season I think Bradbury is definitely ready and will be the future for Scotland at 8. I think he hasn't been as effective starting at 6 and impresses most at the back of the scrum.

If he is the best option, should his age really matter?

If you're good enough, you're old enough. 

The point of view that really should have got Jimmy Saville into more trouble when he was alive.

There has so far been a deafening silence on the 'further additions to the squad' announcements front. If Dents is going to get called up, then I expect we will hear today. If not then I imagine the back row will be as discussed above.

I don't think we will see Bradbury coming through until the summer tour. I expect to see him and Blair Kinghorn featuring then. Toonie is likely to be a little less conservative in selection than VC and more likely to give some kids their chances.

Looks like Richie Gray isn't playing for Toulouse today which is good - the last thing we needed was him getting flogged in a Top 14 game today

Just read Toonie's thoughts on yesterdays game.

Apparently Bennett and Ashe are under HIA proctocols now, so that must make them doubtful for next weekend. This could be Matt Scott's chance to step up.

I have the feeling that he is going to make as few changes as he can get away with for the Wales game. Any changes that may come will be for the last 2 games. Players like Horne, Denton and maybe Dickinson may have had the chance to get a few games in by then and be genuinely in contention.

Update. Watching ScrumV, and apparently John Barclay is 50/50 whether he'll face Scotland...

So the message is "if your going to the game, take your boots" because we have almost run out of fit players?

Denton looked ok on the highlights so must be in with a shout. CDP seems to be going through the motions these days

You need to remember that CDp was bursting his guts for Edinburgh over the last three years when they've been utter mince!

Imagine how the guy feels. Going out there week in week out and huffing and puffing away only to be rewarded with Hodge as a coach! I think it's just got to the point where he's decided that if the team aren't going to play properly then neither is he!

Now! If he does get a call up to Scotland, surely he'll be motivated to up his game as he'll be in the shop window and could get a call from a big English or french team looking for someone of his ability?

A call up could be what's needed to get the fire in his belly going again and a CDP with a belly full of fire is a better player at 6 or 8 than anyone else qualified to play for Scotland.

We could do with a new match thread...

RDW_Scotland wrote:We could do with a new match thread...

I distinctly remember GC saying "If Glasgow lose against Ulster, your old pal GC will do the Scotland vs Wales thread"

Bsando has made a thread

https://www.606v2.com/t65193-6n-2017-scotland-vs-wales-25th-feb