England v France

[munstermuffin]

Parrahas argubally been player of the tournament so far and is dropped for argubally the defining game in championship

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Mad that is,
He's a much better player than Yachvili, and I'm much happier seeing England going up against a French team with Yachvili at 9 than Parra

 

[B10]

Glad Parra isn't starting.

Medard is apparantly touch and go to play with a thigh injury despite being named in the starting line up

 

[Logorrhea]

Dont see a problem with Parra being dropped. Him and Trin-duc havent really offered much control if you ask me. You cant drop Trin-duc (any real options out there?) so bringing in Yashvilli may actually bring a bit of maturity to the combination. Its clever use of the squad if you ask me.

Poitrenaud made one error against Ireland but hes still a classy operator going forward. IF Meddard was to miss out I hope they will bring him in instead of Traille.

 

[munstermuffin]

France just get on role then make strange calls. Harinordoquay is no flanker either and Parra I'm still shocked at.
Messed in at 15 is correct call as Poitrenaud is a liability at moment.

 

[elgringoborracho]

Parra was meh against Ireland apart from his kicks at goal. He will probably start around the 60th minute anyway. And Yachvili is in super hot form atm with Biarritz.

I say good call

 

[Charles]

Parra was meh against Ireland apart from his kicks at goal. He will probably start around the 60th minute anyway. And Yachvili is in super hot form atm with Biarritz.

I say good call

Agreed. I don't think it's about Parra or Yachvili. If we get decent front foot ball, Yachvili can be effective as well. If we dont, which will probably be the case, Yachvili is much better at controlling the game.

I hope Medard is fit to play, with Trinh Duc he's the only one who can make stuff happen out of nothing.

Conal: no offense mate, was just a bit short tempered earlier.

 

[munstermuffin]

Jeez ye French expect alot

 

[DorceOutSide]

para will come on in secound half when france have the lead to kick them to a win

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Livermont is a smart man! Rotating his squad, seeing whats there for the WC.

 

[No Soft Centres]

England probably XV vs France XV comparison

So its half term, im bored, so i thought I'd post somthing that i've been thinking about. France's team has been posted, and johnno is has delayed announcing his team to give moody enough time to be fit to play. Though its not hard to predict the probable starting team. Will edit the post if anything is different though. This comparaison should highlight the key battles and areas that will take place on the weekend. For this i will assume moody will play, and haskell will be on the bench

Front Row
1.Domingo vs Sheridan
2.Servat vs Hartley
3.Mas vs Cole - Mas

Both front rows are playing well but i fear superior experince will win this battle for france, however i do believe england's offer more round the park. Set piece will be interesting. [France 1-0]

Second Row
4.Pierre vs Deacon -
5.Nallet vs Palmer -

Forgive my arrogance but I don't know a lot about pierre, and hasn't seemed to exactly stand out in the 6N so far. Palmer and Deacon are playing the best rugby they have for england at the moment. Dynamic enough to pip this one i think [England 1-1]

Back Row
6.Dusautoir vs Wood
7.Harinordoquy vs Moody
8.Chabal vs Easter

Harinordoquy at 7 is an interesting choice, and moody, if were being honest is hardly going to play his best game, having only played 20mins in the premiership. Dusautoir is captaining his team well, leading by example however wood, is beginning to as the next big thing, impressing many. Easter has been pretty steady for england and is looking pretty good, yet he lacks some sort of spark. Chabal never really rated him especially as an 8 will have to see how he gets on.

Think its pretty even in the back row [France 2-2 England]

Half Backs
9.Yachvili vs Youngs
10.Trinh-Duc vs Flood

Glad Parra isn't playing seems to be one of frances best player at the moment, Think youngs is playing better than yachvili, yet he has been quite in comparasion to his performances in the Autumn internationals. Trinh-duc vs flood, Trinh - Duc the more flash flamboyent, but flood has been very solid and produced some moments of genius as well.

I'd say england pip it there [England 3-2 France]

Centres
12.Jauzion vs Hape
13.Rougerie vs Tindall

Is there really any need? Jauzion, one of the best centres in the world in my opiniona and rougerie, fast and exciting. Hape hasn't played that well since the autmn, defence has been suspect, and showing little signs on attack. Tindall, well........... i guess he it kind of solid in defence :s

France definatly win that battle [France 3 - 3 England]

Back Three
11.Clerc vs Cueto
14.Huget vs Ashton
15.Medard vs Foden

Clerc hasn't been playing reguarly for france, and cueto although hasn't scored as much as other internatonal wingers (yes i am being careful what i say olyy) He is beating players, is a rock in defence, good under the highball and has been the provider on many occasions. Ashton, don't really know if i need to say anything about him. Although it will be interesting to see what the french plan regarding stopping him is. GOOD LUCK. And medard vs foden. As exciting as medard is i just belive that foden is ahead of him, and has been playing well since he got his call up against france last year.

For me England Have this one [France 3 - 4 England]

So.......... that took a while. When the team for england comes out i will edit this if i need to. Just my opinions, so dont shoot me if you dont agree.

Will be a classic match, and will be unbeliveably close. Worried france might just come out on top. Heres to hoping they dont.

Cheers

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I'd agree with all of that,
Though Chabal, on form, at 8 is a very destructive presence - does have a tendancy to leak penalties and knockon a fair bit though

 

[WetAndCold]

Forgive my arrogance but I don't know a lot about pierre

Do you mean ignorance? We wouldn't want Lievremont thinking we're arrogant lol! :lol:
Good post,and agree with everything. Still not entirely sure on who would be best starting; Haskell or Moody... watching the highlights of the Italy game, Haskell was pretty immense. On the other hand, Moody's leadership may trump this.

Does anyone else think it's odd for Chabal to be starting? I would have thought it better to bring him on later so he's fresh to batter some tiring English bodies?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Agree with the Haskell vs Moody debate
I think the best place for Moody is the bench, as he's just back from injury/only played 20 odd minutes in the past couple of months
No need to split up a backrow that is working well together, and Haskell has had a good two games so far - he's no the best 7 in the world/hemisphere/europe/england but he's on form
I think Moodys leadership is talked up a lot as well,
Did anyone say he was a great leader before he was given captaincy? He's a lively player, puts his body on the line etc. but I don't think England miss his leadership
and tbf, if they're want someone shouting at them in the changing room pre-match/at halftime then Martin Johnson is the guy to turn to


Robshaw deserves it more than either of them though!

 

[coonor]

I suspect Chabal is there to knock back Youngs and Flood. If he can do this and take the England half backs out the game France have a very good chance of winning.

 

[wertas]

Now I understood why Yashvili was chosen to start this game he will be winning his 50th cap. Also, Lievremont is looking for depth because of coming RWC. Actually, Parra is world class scrum-half and France need to know how to operate without him. Also, it would be interesting to see how France would perform with Parra at fly-half and Trinc-Duc at 12. It was in last years Six Nations with Italy in final 10 minutes.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

I suspect Chabal is there to knock back Youngs and Flood. If he can do this and take the England half backs out the game France have a very good chance of winning.

You could be right but I dunno, I think that's the job of the backrow that you'd expect anyway, and I don't really see anything about Chabal which qualifies him to do the job better than anyone else, and to be honest, he'd probably be less good at that than someone like bonnaire; hes hardly got great pace.

 

[Peat]

Holy tripe! Discussion about rugby!


That's a French team who look like the game plan is to run around Hape and Tindall instead of acting a battering ram through them.

Thats not what Jauzion and Rougerie say to me...

 

[WetAndCold]

I think the best place for Moody is the bench, as he's just back from injury/only played 20 odd minutes in the past couple of months

Yeh, I agree that Moody should be on the bench considering he's just back from injury. Your probably right about his leadership, I'm just going on what I hear..

 

[coonor]

You could be right but I dunno, I think that's the job of the backrow that you'd expect anyway, and I don't really see anything about Chabal which qualifies him to do the job better than anyone else, and to be honest, he'd probably be less good at that than someone like bonnaire; hes hardly got great pace.

I agree and I don't think he has the fitness to get round the park and try and disrupt the English half backs. I think Leivremont believes he will be able to loads of smashing hits on the England backs. I'm sure he will be able to make some impact but after a big hit he will be figured out and they will try to stop him making ground with ball in hand or avoid him in contact. It will probably be like the Leinster v racing match last year when he made a huge hit on Heaslip but then he got knocked back in every tackle and went off in around the 50th minute. If France can dominate the England forwards they will probably win. England have built a great team but it seems like they can't win when their pack is going backwards e.g. against South Africa. They will have to work on that aspect of the game and find out how to win when their forwards are having a tough time.