2014 Six Nations: France vs Italy (Round 2)

[Big Ewis]

You really shouldn't be writing on a forum if you can't tell when someone is joking/referring to a past exchange. That's twice now you've gone off on one about le crunch when thats not at issue at all.

Also, its funny that its the French guys on here who seem to place more emphasis on that rivalry. The English posters on here mostly couldn't care less, seeing as when you've got the other home nations queuing up to give you the big right hook and constantly saying stuff like 'Playing and beating England" is every Scotsman/Irishmans/Welshmans dream, you stop having time for the English/French rivalry quite quickly.. I like France as a team and a country so have no particular designs against them and definitely don't begrudge them a victory..

tbh I wasn't sure how much of that post was serious/how much a joke, but towards the end of it I figured it was too exaggerated to be a straight post ! I just smiled because regardless of serious or joking I thought it was a funny post personally.

And on a separate note, you shouldn't take gaston's posts too seriously...first of all he isn't even French himself, he's a convert, they're the worst as we know (for any country I mean) and second his obviously hyperbolic, extremely exuberant style with millions of exclamation marks and over-inflated arguments are just his style. He's a good guy with common sense who just, well, has this extreme style as a poster.

P.S.: I'm not so sure about your actual claim of English posters not caring too much about the French rivalry. Some posts suggest otherwise, and certain posters in specific. I think you're trivializing smt that isn't that banal. And French posters here ? I think I was objective and gathered enough in victory even though it was huge for France to start off well, finally, after two bad years. ZeFrenchy, jaunard have been straight forward and talked about the game Rugby-wise, I think the RCT fan as well and FrenchFan hasn't made any provocative claims, has he ?...Tony hasn't even said anything I believe...

 

[FrenchFan]

France haven't had a big wing since Malzieu or Rougerie. Clerc, Heymans, Palisson were all under 6' IIRC.
Whatever happened to Malzieu? He was popular, faded away, came back a few seasons back with PSA and again faded away.

injuries, too many of them. He is done for Intl rugby. He wouldn't get a look in anyway now with the new guys Guitoune Bonneval

 

[Draggs]

*sighhhhh* this is all this thread could conjure since I last was on here ?...

errrr, yeah so:
Draggs well I don't know if you can say that about France. We did play Benjamin Fall for example, and Guitoune is the same height (1m86). Huget of course is tall at 1m90.
Bonneval surprisingly is 1m85 tall...
While it's true Médard, Vincent Clerc or esp. Marc Andreu are below the avg. height for wingers.


Anyways, match wasn't perfect and the French attack still isn't where it should be, but 30 points on an Italian team that really challenged the Welsh at home and were very resilient in Paris too and a 20 point victory (I'd predicted 15+) which really should have been more...pretty happy with France overall.

Yes, I said a Wings, thanks Darwin.
Thats 6'1", taller than average, but I consider a big wing 6'3"+. Also bulk, Malzieu was a bit lanky IIRC. Martial was a tall lad, he was pretty good for Castres in 2012. Wasn't he 195cm/6'5"?
I like variety out wide. Shane Williams/George North if you will. Huget being a big lad offers France something different. A wing that can touch the bottom of the pool

@Frenchfan, thanks!

@Others. Nah, I like French rugby. I watch top14 more than any other NH competition. I just don't post in the threads as much because Ewis, Gaston, Tony know far more and would call me names if I got something wrong.

 

[FrenchFan]

So Ewis, whenever England or other sides score from a charge-down or intercept you describe it as 'lucky' and don't really think it counts.

So by your own logic, with 7 of your points coming from an intercept yesterday which doesn't really count, basically you only won 23 - 10 yesterday at home against Italy. Also, one of your tries (Fofana) came from the ball squirting out the side and the Italian defense wasn't really ready for him to run down the side of the pitch like that so I'm not sure that counts either..
16 - 10 at home isn't really that great is it - bit pants actually...

Hang on was Italy also not denied a try? with the conversion thats 16-17 oops they won

Ladies and Gentlemen Italy have been shamelessly ROBBED. They should have won . Ok They won it.

 

[Big Ewis]

Yes, I said a Wings, thanks Darwin.
Thats 6'1", taller than average, but I consider a big wing 6'3"+. Also bulk, Malzieu was a bit lanky IIRC. Martial was a tall lad, he was pretty good for Castres in 2012. Wasn't he 195cm/6'5"?
I like variety out wide. Shane Williams/George North if you will. Huget being a big lad offers France something different. A wing that can touch the bottom of the pool

@Frenchfan, thanks!

@Others. Nah, I like French rugby. I watch top14 more than any other NH competition. I just don't post in the threads as much because Ewis, Gaston, Tony know far more and would call me names if I got something wrong.

yeah well you know me and my insatiable plans to add massive mass in every single player of my XV, so George North on any XV, doesn't matter what the game plan is. There's no situation where a North doesn't fit at the wing. Period. That's why I want Huget to start, no matter what. You need bulk if you can get it, at one (at least) wing.
And that's why I want Huget-Guitoune when France is 100% healthy. They're both the athletic type, but Huget is more present on defense, thicker, taller, stronger - Guitoune is just an athletic beast though, the dude is one hell of a finisher and as seen in the Top 14 can score a try all by himself consistently, as opposed to just completing a team play.
It's damn near tragic he had to be injured the very dawn of this 6N when he was exploding onto the world scene....big injury too...some months to go...I'm sure in continuity with his awesome Top 14 season (still co-leading with 9 tries) he would've rocked his first 6N !.....

Yeah a lot of French fans have called for Romain Martial to be selected. Apparently he played 1 capped match with France, can't even remember...interesting specimen: tall in deed (1m95), about 102kg.
From the same club, I like Rémy Grosso a lot on the wing. 1m91, but much bulkier though (104kg). Brutal fends, pure power winger. He's 25 now, should be a fantastic winger later, especially if he can leave Castres, too much competition there with Garvey and Martial..

And please post on the Top 14 boards man !!! say what you gotta say, and we'll let you know if it's too partial an opinion or wtvr......



And about Slimani and that red card...I sure hope they go easy on him and show clemency as they did Maestri back in Nov. against that Tongan brute. He "only" retaliated with a headbutt himself, though that Italian dicchead headbutted him initially and threw about 5 punches in his ab area. If Slimani can't play in Cardiff or even worse the rest of the way, it's a big loss for France, and just wouldn't be fair.
They'll extend their verdict over at the Six Nations Comity in Dublin on Wednesday...fk, he better be playing in Cardiff in two weeks......

 

[Big Ewis]

Check out the scrums, guys: