[2021 Six Nations] France vs Scotland (26/03/21)

[Oliver Madden]

I don't know if France are as good as we think. If you look at their games this year. Not including Italy, they scraped a win in Ireland against a team missing Murray, Sexton and James Ryan amongst others. They lost at Twickenham to a team that finished 5th and looked toothless in their other matches. Finally, they were dominated by Wales last week for 60 minutes and only some silly ill-discipline by the Welsh let France back in it. If Wales had of hung on last week I think there would have been some criticism of Galthie starting to appear. I think the Scots are going to be very competitive in this game, I think they can edge the breakdown and disrupt France's rhythm. Scotland have got a good enough team to do the job.

Edit: I was fairly confident in France on this thread earlier in the week, my confidence is starting to waver a bit as I've thought about it more.

 

[Genghis]

Galthie is a genius.

He goes out for waffles, gets away with infecting most of his team ..... and then they don't get punished (but Scotland can only have 5 of their Premiership players released, as far as I understand, so they are the ones effectively penalised)

Sort of sums up what a weird year it has been.

 

[Genghis]

Scotland are strange ..... they have many fantastic players and - on their day - they are nigh on unplayable. The issue is that they only seem able to produce that sort of performance once in a 6N tournament.

Beating another genuine tier 1 team by 20 odd points is not easy, or often done. I think this France team have a good attitude and they will definitely go for it. I think they will win unless they start chucking the ball around too early. I have an awful feeling they might do it though, especially after basically throwing at all away last year with the red card.

It certainly makes this last game interesting in this years tournament though!

 

[Dai Yorkshire]

Why? He's defensively a very sound fly-half.

But he's flaky upset his game, give him more to do than usual.

 

[Jakedood]

Galthie is a genius.

He goes out for waffles, gets away with infecting most of his team ..... and then they don't get punished (but Scotland can only have 5 of their Premiership players released, as far as I understand, so they are the ones effectively penalised)

Sort of sums up what a weird year it has been.

I oddly think it may have helped scotland... hasnt it also allowed them to bring Adam Hastings to the bench and have Zander Fagerson back at prop?

 

[Welsh Exile]

 

[Wichita]

I think he was actually going for a neck roll, which is also illegal, hence the twist. And hes missed. Thatd be my assumption of whats gone on

My impression is that he was trying to finish the clearing job he had started before falling.
It is not completely impossible to imagine he did it on purpose, but the idea of a player trying to gouge someone else who stands in front on him showing his back, while falling backwards, does not seem very natural. My feeling is that he tried to grab anything while falling, hence the reckless, but not intentional, verdict.
Let us not forget the guy is 2m and 21 st, you can't expect him to have the same agility skills as Hogg or Dupont...

 

[Wichita]

I don't know if France are as good as we think. If you look at their games this year. Not including Italy, they scraped a win in Ireland against a team missing Murray, Sexton and James Ryan amongst others. They lost at Twickenham to a team that finished 5th and looked toothless in their other matches. Finally, they were dominated by Wales last week for 60 minutes and only some silly ill-discipline by the Welsh let France back in it. If Wales had of hung on last week I think there would have been some criticism of Galthie starting to appear. I think the Scots are going to be very competitive in this game, I think they can edge the breakdown and disrupt France's rhythm. Scotland have got a good enough team to do the job.

Edit: I was fairly confident in France on this thread earlier in the week, my confidence is starting to waver a bit as I've thought about it more.

Back to this France Wales game, you have to remember that the French team crossed the try line 12 times, with just 4 tries to show for it. This is a quite unusual proportion, and one that has to be taken into account when analyzing the match. Wales did 6 for 3, which is probably unusual as well.

 

[FrenchFan]

The French team is nowhere near the finished article. They've been bigged up by clueless media desperate to sell the game and rattling old cliches about French rugby. Rugby fans here know this is just all hype.
Galthie has a long way to go. His team selections are very good and they're consistent. His kicking strategy in the AI was questionable. His coaching off the bench against England was poor and prob cost us the game.
Long way to go for les Bleus but at least we are picking the right players and heading into the right direction. Galthie has done well so far but until we've won the 6N we can't say much more.
On the game. I think we'll win but may come short on points.

 

[Welsh Exile]

I still can't see France doing it. I'm properly jinxing it now. I'd say there's more chance of Scotland winning the match than there is France beating Scotland by 21 points.

 

[Wichita]

The French team is nowhere near the finished article. They've been bigged up by clueless media desperate to sell the game and rattling old cliches about French rugby. Rugby fans here know this is just all hype.
Galthie has a long way to go. His team selections are very good and they're consistent. His kicking strategy in the AI was questionable. His coaching off the bench against England was poor and prob cost us the game.
Long way to go for les Bleus but at least we are picking the right players and heading into the right direction. Galthie has done well so far but until we've won the 6N we can't say much more.
On the game. I think we'll win but may come short on points.

No team, no coach is the finished article, there is always room for improvement, some of the best All Black teams in history have been sent packing because of that when everybody thought they were invincible. I agree with you, Galthie's selection choices are often proven right, but his game management is sometimes too conservative. Still, I think we still have some positions to work out (3, 5, 6, 11) but for a relatively young unit (meant as a team), I think they have achieved something. We still have to confront the best SH teams, but this French team is ticking quite a few boxes already. So it is not ALL hype!

 

[Wichita]

I still can't see France doing it. I'm properly jinxing it now. I'd say there's more chance of Scotland winning the match than there is France beating Scotland by 21 points.

Reason says you are right, but there is much more chance France will win by 12 points than losing (and obviously than winning by more than 20)!
Situation at half time will be a crucial driver : if Scotland is behind by more than 12 points, they will not have much to gain (3rd or 4th place?) , so will they be as committed as at the start
of the match?

 

[Welsh Exile]

Reason says you are right, but there is much more chance France will win by 12 points than losing (and obviously than winning by more than 20)!
Situation at half time will be a crucial driver : if Scotland is behind by more than 12 points, they will not have much to gain (3rd or 4th place?) , so will they be as committed as at the start
of the match?

Yeah, don't get me wrong, they can do it I just think it's pretty unlikely. I'm expecting a France win but by something like 5-10 points.

I agree, HT will be key and if France are up by 12 plus at the break I'll start to worry a bit but even then I'd still back Scotland to have a decent 2nd half. It's Lions year so I can see a lot of the Scottish players giving 110% until the final whistle. Gats will probably be in the stands

The 2 obvious ways I see France doing this are an early red for Scotland and/or Scotland just completely flop.

Frances 2 away games haven't exactly been impressive with 1 loss and one 1 point victory against Ireland. Then your only other game against decent opposition was against us which we lost more than France won if you know what I mean. It's a big if but if Scotland get close to performing like they did against England I fancy Scotland to take the win, or at the very least, keep a loss within a few points.

 

[FrenchFan]

No team, no coach is the finished article, there is always room for improvement, some of the best All Black teams in history have been sent packing because of that when everybody thought they were invincible. I agree with you, Galthie's selection choices are often proven right, but his game management is sometimes too conservative. Still, I think we still have some positions to work out (3, 5, 6, 11) but for a relatively young unit (meant as a team), I think they have achieved something. We still have to confront the best SH teams, but this French team is ticking quite a few boxes already. So it is not ALL hype!

The hype is to bill them as 'favourite to win their own World Cup'. It's trash. We don't know what can happen in 2 years. A lot. Serious injuries to key players play a big part unfortunately. We need build depth more. The good thing is that we have that depth in virtually all positions incl. second row with Geraci (injured for now) and Pesenti.
For TH (3) I'd like to see the Racing prop Georges Henri Colombes.
At 11 Donovan Taofefinua is def a prospect alongside Matthis Lebel top try scorer in T14.
At 6 we have Francois Cros who for me is a firststarter. He was back from injury and lacked competition going into the 6N. I still think there is time and hopefully room for Sekou Macalou.
I think some players now in the squad may disappear and new comers will emerge.

 

[Wichita]

Yeah, don't get me wrong, they can do it I just think it's pretty unlikely. I'm expecting a France win but by something like 5-10 points.

I agree, HT will be key and if France are up by 12 plus at the break I'll start to worry a bit but even then I'd still back Scotland to have a decent 2nd half. It's Lions year so I can see a lot of the Scottish players giving 110% until the final whistle. Gats will probably be in the stands

The 2 obvious ways I see France doing this are an early red for Scotland and/or Scotland just completely flop.

Frances 2 away games haven't exactly been impressive with 1 loss and one 1 point victory against Ireland. Then your only other game against decent opposition was against us which we lost more than France won if you know what I mean. It's a big if but if Scotland get close to performing like they did against England I fancy Scotland to take the win, or at the very least, keep a loss within a few points.

Let's hope BoJo declares France a Red country tonight then, Gatland might be stopped at the border and be stuck in the EU forever, he will have to take the Italy coaching job to make a living

 

[FrenchFan]

Frances 2 away games haven't exactly been impressive with 1 loss and one 1 point victory against Ireland. Then your only other game against decent opposition was against us which we lost more than France won if you know what I mean. It's a big if but if Scotland get close to performing like they did against England I fancy Scotland to take the win, or at the very least, keep a loss within a few points.

But nobody here said it was impressive. Maybe your media did and you're relaying the hype. A 1 pt victory is not impressive by definition anyway. But it was a good win and away wins for a young side in the 6N are like gold dust. And we hadn't won in a long time in Dublin.

 

[Welsh Exile]

But nobody here said it was impressive. Maybe your media did and you're relaying the hype. A 1 pt victory is not impressive by definition anyway. But it was a good win and away wins for a young side in the 6N are like gold dust. And we hadn't won in a long time in Dublin.

Sorry I probably didn't explain myself very well, I'm not talking about what the media were hyping up I'm just saying what I think from how I see it. Definitely didn't mean to suggest they weren't good wins. Ireland is a very hard place to go and win for any team in the world so kudos for that. If you had blown Wales away in Paris last week then I'd be a lot less confident of Wales winning the 6N tomorrow but based on what I've seen from France, and Scotland, over the whole tournament leads me to suggest this should be a pretty close game. Certainly not impossible though so it's nicely poised.

 

[FrenchFan]

I bet if we don't win this 6N the same media that had us as the next World champs will start berate or dismiss les Bleus...

 

[g6mcg]

Matt Fagerson out, Haining in at 8 and Surrey's the Lowland's finest replaces him on the bench.

Losing Fagerson is a blow, think he's been pretty good and was finally solving our 8 problem.

 

[Dai Yorkshire]

My impression is that he was trying to finish the clearing job he had started before falling.
It is not completely impossible to imagine he did it on purpose, but the idea of a player trying to gouge someone else who stands in front on him showing his back, while falling backwards, does not seem very natural. My feeling is that he tried to grab anything while falling, hence the reckless, but not intentional, verdict.
Let us not forget the guy is 2m and 21 st, you can't expect him to have the same agility skills as Hogg or Dupont...

It's not his ability thats in question, just his double vision if he was clearing out he missed by several feet