6 Nations - Le Big One! Wales v Francais, Sat 17th March

First topic message reminder :

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff.



Teams:

Wales: Halfpenny; North, S Williams, Parkes, L Williams; Biggar, G Davies; R Evans, Owens, Francis, Hill, A W Jones (capt), Tipuric, Faletau, Navidi.
Replacements: Dee, Smith, Lee, B Davies, Shingler, A Davies, Anscombe, S Evans.


France: Benjamin Fall; Gael Fickou, Mathieu Bastareaud (capt), Geoffrey Doumayrou, Remy Grosso; Francois Trinh-Duc, Maxime Machenaud; Jefferson Poirot, Adrien Pelissie, Cedate Gomes Sa, Paul Gabrillagues, Sebastien Vahamaahina, Wenceslas Lauret, Yacouba Camara, Marc Tauleigne.

Replacements: Camille Chat, Dany Priso, Rabah Slimani, Bernard Le Roux, Mathieu Babillot, Baptiste Couilloud, Lionel Beauxis, Geoffrey Palis.

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So, with Ireland seemingly not interested in contributing to the excitement of Super Saturday by selfishly wrapping up the tournament a week early ( ) the REAL excitement in the championship lies in the race for 2nd place! Lots of teams in with a shout. Wales in 2nd currently. A win with no BP might be enough if England don’t beat Ireland with a try BP (big ask for them!). If England do that then Wales will need a try BP to be sure of 2nd place (again, a big ask!) otherwise it’s down to BPs and points difference I guess. France have a very real shout too: a BP win vs Wales and an England loss will see France finish 2nd. Scotland too have an outside chance but would need a big BP win and then two draws in the other two games (I think), and even then it’s down to points difference. So all to play for! Exciting.

I feel France have improved quite a bit of late. Still a bit erratic but they’re fronting up and making things difficult. I’m not overly confident for Saturday from a Welsh perspective as our own form has been a bit erratic. In fact, I’m a little surprised that we find ourselves in 2nd place!

Wales have quite obviously made an attempt to develop depth this tournament. Some of that was forced but in the past Gats would just put out of form and returning players in and hope they play themselves into form. If anything he’s gone a bit too far the other way as we have started 3 different fly halves this tournament and we don’t really know who is in pole position going forward. But it’s great for me as a Welsh rugby fan to see some depth develop for once. We seem to have a glut of back row forwards and some really quality players are going to have to miss out - we need to pick 3 starters out of Shingler, Navidi, Moriarty, Tipuric, Faletau, Cubby Davies and Jenkins. We still have the likes of Warburton to come back in too, Lydiate is highly experienced and on the fringes and youngsters like Ollie Griffiths, Will Boyd and Thomas Young are waiting in the wings. Happy days!

I think we’ll see a return to a near full strength team against France. I can’t decide who to go for at 10 though. Biggar might be a good steady eddy type to go through the phases and build pressure rather than the helter skelter rugby of someone like Patchell which is more high risk and high reward with lots of off loads and inter-linking. Anscombe might be a good compromise in between.

My team would be something like this:

1. Rob Evans
2. Ken Owens
3. Samson Lee (is he fit?)
4. AWJ.
5. Hill
6. Shingler
7. Navidi
8. Faletau
9. G Davies
10. Anscombe
11. North
12. Parkes
13. Sc Williams
14. Evans
15. Halfpenny

Bench would consist of something like Nicky Smith, Tomos Francis, Elliott Dee, Brad Davies, Tipuric, Aled Davies, Biggar, Liam Williams.

Liam Williams has not looked too good of late and Halfpenny seems to be in a bit of form and is attacking and running more. Plus he’s a kicking option and very good defensively. It’s a big call from me as I’ve not always been a fan of Halfpenny. Owen Watkin is unlucky at 13 in my team. I just think a bit more experience in Scott Williams will be needed against France, especially with Bastareaud running down the centre channels. Tough call though. In the back row I’ve gone for the creativity and form of Shingler; the physicality and breakdown skill of Navidi; and the carrying and power of Faletau. I think it’s a nice balance but there’s plenty to choose from. France have a mobile and physical back row so this will be a key area and I think those 3 will do well. Tipuric to come on when the game breaks up a bit.

Thoughts?

Heaf wrote:Did that go 10?

Not on the kick but it bounced past 10. Wales picked it up about a yard past the line, good awareness and excellent try.

Ah yes ...

Fantastic by AWJ!

Not sure how Scott W can stay on there...

JDizzle wrote:Not sure how Scott W can stay on there...

And he immediately spills the ball next phase...

Bloody awful game.

Wouldn’t say awful game, its as expected for two fairly even sides.

You never see vin diesel and Justin Tipuric in the same room!

Just high shots by France and silly stuff by wales. It’s not fun to watch.

Despite the score line and some silly mistakes, this is probably the best France has done in attack for a long while. Good to see them playing with confidence. Don’t think it will be enough, they will probably run out of energy and ideas in the 2nd half.

This is the worst I’ve seen Wales play in this tournament. Just awful. Some of them took full advantage of that week off that’s for sure.

...and whilst Gareth Davies has continued his inconsistent performances it’s Biggar who’s been worse. He keeps making the wrong decisions. He was also playing ‘too’ deep and when he finally figured it wasn’t working he went back to kicking.

Wales backs haven’t been at their best for sure . Still, Loads of silly errors from both teams.

France were high tackling through the entire first half... we’ve really been short handed by officials this tournament!

Stupid useless mistake... if we lose this they can only blame themselves ...

He missed, how?

FFS... this was an easy penalty...

All France this half but it's like they don't actually want to win the game!

Every time Wales make a tackle on the french players are not told Tackle, so they have to release the player. But every time Franch make the same tackle they are told to release the player...bit one sided for my liking.

All that good forward work wasted by dumb decision. They couldn’t score in a brothel. So frustrating, can’t watch that tripe anymore.

AWJ has to be the Man of The Match here today, he has been immense.

France on top of all off the stats except the one that matters!

Why did he kick?!

eirebilly wrote:AWJ has to be the Man of The Match here today, he has been immense.

Him or Bast - the only decent players on the pitch today.

French clearly off their feet, critical moment.

mikey_dragon wrote:

eirebilly wrote:AWJ has to be the Man of The Match here today, he has been immense.

Him or Bast - the only decent players on the pitch today.

And AWJ gets it

Bast has been very good but AWJ has led beautifully by example today. In a really horrible match where Wales have been dragged into playing exactly how France wanted them too, he held strong and led the line. Still one of the best in the world.

Not a classic game but well done Wales for the win and 2nd in the table.

Not the prettiest of games - France will be wondering how they didn't score one of their many, many opportunities but it was great Welsh defence.

Congratulations Wales on the 2nd place finish!

Thank god that croque of absolute dog Poopie is over. Ban both teams until they learn to play.

eirebilly wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

eirebilly wrote:AWJ has to be the Man of The Match here today, he has been immense.

Him or Bast - the only decent players on the pitch today.

And AWJ gets it

Bast has been very good but AWJ has led beautifully by example today. In a really horrible match where Wales have been dragged into playing exactly how France wanted them too, he held strong and led the line. Still one of the best in the world.

Not a classic game but well done Wales for the win and 2nd in the table.

Thanks. Ireland the best by some distance this year. Hopefully we improve and get that trophy next year, you gotta come to Cardiff so may as well bring it with you .

mikey_dragon wrote:Thank god that croque of absolute dog Poopie is over. Ban both teams until they learn to play.

I must admit the Italy v Scotland game was much more entertaining to watch.

Dire,dreadful.frustrating,depressing to say the least,but what more can we expect from a coaching team that has no right to coach professional rugby.Can we also lay to rest the fiction that Biggar,Hill,Scott W,Owens,Gareth D are international class.They aren't.Thank the good Lord we have 1/2p,AWJ and Faletau.

mikey_dragon wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

eirebilly wrote:AWJ has to be the Man of The Match here today, he has been immense.

Him or Bast - the only decent players on the pitch today.

And AWJ gets it

Bast has been very good but AWJ has led beautifully by example today. In a really horrible match where Wales have been dragged into playing exactly how France wanted them too, he held strong and led the line. Still one of the best in the world.

Not a classic game but well done Wales for the win and 2nd in the table.

Thanks. Ireland the best by some distance this year. Hopefully we improve and get that trophy next year, you gotta come to Cardiff so may as well bring it with you .

I hear closed roofs are bad for male hair growth, mikey. So just make sure all the men folk in Wales that love their dark locks get their petitions in early: "Keep the Roof Open and save our Hair!"

What do people want. We were always going to be cagey when he started Biggar. Plus we had the pressure all along of finishing above “mighty England”.

gatland pre match was asked why biggar not patchel or anscombe.......so he said this was going to be a defensive game and dan has the kicking tactical game, the high ball kick/catch is world class and is the best defensive 10....he also said dan is working on changes in the attacking game.......so if you had a list of attributes for the three 10 s at the moment and listed what they can and can't do......dan comes out on top...thats where we are patchell and anscombe have a longer list to work on than dan .

I was actually very surprised by this French team this year. Ok, they only won two games but they were pretty much in the games they lost and did not lose by big margins. This is not what I expected from a French team is disarray.

The French team aren't in disarray.  They have a new coach. What I mean is that teams can get a big bounce back when they get a new coach; the disarray bit is usually a description of them before the new coach arrives.
And despite the attitudes to him for his tenure at Italy, France to me seem to have a good one by all accounts.  Indeed, as I think I've said before, his stint at Italy might just make him the perfect coach to get French players into a mood of 1) not feeling sorry for themselves, and 2) knuckling down to the kinds of patterns, discipline and hard-work ethic that might finally see them willing to be a team rather than a group of talented individuals doing their own thing.  Their defence I think has proved the strongest in this contest in terms of tries let in.  That's always a good sign that a team has honest discipline and work ethic.  For France, that's something we all should be aware of because they can add to that now big time.

This French team is in disarray, loads of chopping and changing took place during this 6N, excluding the last 2 games.
Players who were performing dropped inexplicably...

The glue that bound them this 6N was Baster...

They're not in disarray, billy. It's just an over-used cliché that rugby people have become addicted to.

They're consolidating what they have and will then add to it I'm sure.  

The team in disarray is England.  All the players, all the coaches, all the science, all the experience of success and still couldn't find solutions to a season that went from middling to bad to - well, disastrous for them when you consider where they were a few short months ago.

I think that is disarray Fly as the French team could hardly settle due to all the changes. You can see that as a stable side if ye like but for me it is not.

I also do not feel that England are in disarray, they are a solid stable side who had 1 bad 6N, its happened to all the nations at some stage.

England are in disarray.
France are emerging from their disarray period.
Try finding a settled team in a hot Six Nations competition when you're just new to the job, have a lot of work to do to find a genuine squad before a WC and have pride to take care of.

Joe Schmidt has been all over the shop in the last year or so with adding players and taking them away again.  Would you call that disarray, billy, or just a coach that knows he has to find players to give him the game plan he wants to play?

France have done A okay by me for a side that most people thought would be a much easier proposition than they've proven to be.

ps - France are very much the side that almost took our Slam away from us - not England.

This thread is in disarray!

gavstar wrote:gatland pre match was asked why biggar not patchel or anscombe.......so he said this was going to be a defensive game and dan has the kicking tactical game, the high ball kick/catch is world class and is the best defensive 10....he also said dan is working on changes in the attacking game.......so if you had a list of attributes for the three 10 s at the moment and listed what they can and can't do......dan comes out on top...thats where we are  patchell and anscombe have a longer list to work on than dan .

Dan certainly doesn’t come out on top. On this form he’s third best in Wales and has been on a steady decline since 2016.