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.

Barnes hates giving yellow cards to wales

8 handling errors, 10 of which by Anscombe!

Also Biggar is much better than Anscome

Are these two teams wearing each others kit?
France are playing like a well organised team and Wales are playing... Well like France (not the good France)

Collapse2005 wrote:Barnes hates giving yellow cards to wales

He thought about it, but as he had only penalised France for the same offence in a similar position would have been unfair.


Excellent drop goal

What a half for France. They even finish it with a cracking drop goal!

Great send off for Gatland in his final tournament - play the worst you’ve ever played under his tutelage.

Collapse2005 wrote:Barnes hates giving yellow cards to wales

He has been generous so far. Davies pen was cynical and could have been yellow. Tipuric was swimming up the side of that maul as it collapsed as well.

France have taken a que from Toulouse. Brilliant rugby, running great lines. We all love France when they play like that. Especially in such dire conditions.

Dont think anyone would have guessed that halftime score. Can France keep it up?

And what's happened to anscombe? He seems to have lost all confidence

French kicking has been very good though

Wales need more glue on their hands. Surely it hasn’t been that dry in Wales.

Why do we have to have France in our RWC group?

France have won the breakdown and Wales have dropped too many balls.

Anscombe has been poor, looks like a guy out of position. French backs have been sprightly.

Well I went for France first half Wales full time but was hoping for something closer. I don’t think it’s over, but it’s close.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:Barnes hates giving yellow cards to wales

He has been generous so far. Davies pen was cynical and could have been yellow. Tipuric was swimming up the side of that maul as it collapsed as well.

France have taken a que from Toulouse. Brilliant rugby, running great lines. We all love France when they play like that. Especially in such dire conditions.

AWJ rucking ahead of the breakdown, lying on the wrong side etc etc

Well most unexpected ... France didn't get the upper hand where you would have expected ie scrum, driving maul etc, but made up for it everywhere else ... can they keep it up though?

Worst Welsh performance I've seen in some time. An embarrassing number of errors. If dismal France turned up this could have been an ugly 8-7 FT result; unfortunately for Wales, good France have shown up for this one.

lostinwales wrote:French kicking has been very good though

French handling has been excellent

And picamoles stepped Anscombe for his try too..

Are we allowed to say this is a very French performance yet?

The French handling has been beautiful to watch,

I could see Anscombe going to 15, Williams to wing and Biggar at 10 early on here.

Gatland will know his side just needs a handle on the game.

lostinwales wrote:And picamoles stepped Anscombe for his try too..

He never wanted to make that tackle.

I missed the Huget try as my tiny man-bladder had 3/4 of a beer and so I was in for a pee, but that was an absolute cracker.

The Oracle wrote:Great send off for Gatland in his final tournament - play the worst you’ve ever played under his tutelage.

First half against Ireland in 2013 was poor, but I guess that was under Howley.

I don’t think Inverdale has mentioned Wilko yet?

TightHEAD wrote:The French handling has been beautiful to watch,

So have the running lines. Everytime they make a break there's players running off their shoulder looking to pick off the cover tacklers.

Abysmal from Wales. F*******g embarrassing.

It’s like watching the Dragons!

The Oracle wrote:It’s like watching the Dragons!

The shabby play, not the try. Obvs!

Antonio 24 stone and carried for 24cm today.

Good try!

Game on!

Good work by Adams (helped of course by Willemse)

See - told ya ...

Hmm, if Farrell tackles as Tomos Williams just did there will be a lynching. 

LondonTiger wrote:Hmm, if Farrell tackles as Tomos Williams just did there will be a lynching. 

But his arm was clearly around his waist

Nah - according to Jiffy he wrapped his arm

Hmm, well I did say it could change in a flash.

French collapse????

Told ya - again ...

Gareth Davies and Biggar on - yes!

The French doing Frenchy things.

I feel really sorry for Oracle's neighbours now!

The real France have returned!

The Oracle wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:Hmm, if Farrell tackles as Tomos Williams just did there will be a lynching. 

But his arm was clearly around his waist

And?

Shoulder and straight arm combo is very Rugby League in style. There's wasn't a great deal of wrapping but definitely enough for no penalty.

RDW wrote:The real France have returned!

You could say that the French first half was like watching Glasgow Warriors. Their second half reeks of luvviedom.

You could say that.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:Hmm, if Farrell tackles as Tomos Williams just did there will be a lynching. 

But his arm was clearly around his waist

And?

Shoulder and straight arm combo is very Rugby League in style. There's wasn't a great deal of wrapping but definitely enough for no penalty.

So not like the Farrell stuff then!

They were so offside then!

Still think Hadleigh Parkes sounds like a caravan site in Dorset.