SIX NATIONS OPENING MATCH - France vs Wales Stade de France - 1st February 2019

First topic message reminder :

France: Maxime Medard; Damian Penaud, Wesley Fofana, Romain Ntamack, Yohann Huget; Camille Lopez, Morgan Parra; Jefferson Poirot, Guilhem Guirado, Uini Atonio; Sébastien Vahaamahina, Paul Willemse, Wenceslas Lauret, Arthur Itturia, Louis Picamoles.

Reps: Julien Marchand, Dany Priso, Demba Bamba, Felix Lambey, Gregory Alldritt, Baptiste Serin, Gael Fickou, Geoffrey Doumayrou.



Wales: Liam Williams; George North, Jonathan Davies, Hadleigh Parkes, Josh Adams; Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Rob Evans, Ken Owens, Tomas Francis; Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones; Josh Navidi, Justin Tipuric, Ross Moriarty.

Reps: Elliot Dee, Wyn Jones, Samson Lee, Cory Hill, Aaron Wainwright, Gareth Davies, Dan Biggar, Owen Watkin.

I'd be very disappointed if we lost because we are a talented, experienced and organised team.

I've gone for France 17 - 19 Wales.

Lots of disruption with the travel today trying to get to Paris. Apparently the pundits couldn’t fly from Bristol and had to get the train instead.

Sonia McLaughlan among them..! Oh well, not going to be overly upset if she misses the gig.

Another interesting stat Wales have only won one game away in the last 3 6 Ns competition.

Last year Wales beat France by one point at home and were arguably second best in a rearguard performance against imo a worse French side than this year.

It will be down whether this French side click, if they do it will be a long day at the office for

The exciting thing for me about this French team is that they've got the personnel to play the bludgeoning game or the more open offloading game, or better yet a combination of the two. I say exciting because I was brought up on the France of Blanco and Sella and Lagisquet (and Benazzi) so they've always been my second Test side. If we have to lose, I'd rather it was to a team playing that kind of off-the-cuff rugby, even if you don't see it as often these days.

Yeah, if France get this right I can see them picking up enough points that they win the game. Wales will have to work for their points in Paris, as Ireland did last year. Even with a better disciplined and more tactically astute team, as I'd expect Wales to be, France are still powerful and awkward enough that game control doesn't equate to scoreboard control.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:Another interesting stat Wales have only won one game away in the last 3 6 Ns competition.

Last year Wales beat France by one point at home and were arguably second best in a rearguard performance against imo a worse French side than this year.

It will be down whether this French side click, if they do it will be a long day at the office for

Trev

Have you entered your predictions on the Six Nations Competition thread for week 1?


https://www.606v2.com/t68387-six-nations-competition-week-1

maestegmafia wrote:Lots of disruption with the travel today trying to get to Paris. Apparently the pundits couldn’t fly from Bristol and had to get the train instead.

Sonia McLaughlan among them..! Oh well, not going to be overly upset if she misses the gig.

Too bad - she made it ...

This french team is as mad as a box of frogs

Early days but the juggernaut is winning for now

Not a night for goal-kicking ...

Very sloppy so far, particularly from Wales.

Get in!

Should have kicked for the corner instead of the posts to spend some time in the French half .. and just as I type that they score ....

Or......

You f******** chump!

Oh dear ...

Oooft, unlucky.

Good work to get to the line, but appalling finishing

Wish Jonathan Davies would at least try and be impartial when commentating.

Williams should have been hooked at that point.

It’s interesting watching the French defensive line. Obviously I’m a little biased but they seem to be well ahead of the back foot when the ball is played by the Welsh scrum half, without sanction. One to watch throughout the game.

EnglishReign wrote:Wish Jonathan Davies would at least try and be impartial when commentating.

He’s not there to be impartial. He’s there to represent the welsh view, surely? And O’Connell to represent the French, as he’s coaching in France?

Very quiet stadium.

Offside in professional rugby, surely not!

The Oracle wrote:It’s interesting watching the French defensive line. Obviously I’m a little biased but they seem to be well ahead of the back foot when the ball is played by the Welsh scrum half, without sanction. One to watch throughout the game.

Both sides offside in defence, France more obviously, and at box kicks, Wales more obviously.

Oh dear!

Wow. Great try.

Ah well, tournament over. Let’s concentrate on the World Cup instead!

He’s there to represent Wales and be professional, not whoop and cheer. I remember when people thought Brian Moore was biased!

Conditions are really awful

I have to say both tries by France have been pretty good ...

Poor defence from North.

Missed kicks might cost France though.

The Oracle wrote:Ah well, tournament over. Let’s concentrate on the World Cup instead!

10 points can be recovered in a flash

O'Connell is a really great pundit. Such an intelligent bloke with so much rugby knowledge.

If kicks had all gone over it would be 17-3.

Looks horrible conditions to play in.

The Oracle wrote:Ah well, tournament over. Let’s concentrate on the World Cup instead!

Early days yet - the big lads could get very tired by the end ...

LondonTiger wrote:

The Oracle wrote:Ah well, tournament over. Let’s concentrate on the World Cup instead!

10 points can be recovered in a flash

Nah, you can tell a lot by the opening 25mins of a tournament. Wales are done!

Wales have pulled it out of the bag plenty of times before though ...

That’s exactly what Anscombe doesn’t bring to the Wales team.

Ten points is a massive lead in these conditions. Mind you, the French seem keen to open up at any opportunity.

Honking conditions right enough but plenty game left, no need to worry yet. Missing three kicks in a game that will be as close as this is the most French thing ever.

5 kicks 5 misses...

Wales need to kick to the bloody corner ...

Penaud looks great, it's like he's been shot out of a cannon every time he gets the ball

Who would have thought we would be seeing a French tactical masterclass!

Get Anscombe off NOW! That must be 10 errors. Cardiff clown.

Don’t think I’ve seen Wales look this bad in years.

Great clearance kick under pressure there!

Interestingly despite all the talk about the size of the French pack it's not that that's making the difference ...

This is the worst Welsh half I can remember - Gatland is going to go through them at half time