France 2014 Six Nations Thread

[dragos03]

Finally Trinh-Duc gets another chance, he is by far the best French fly half and a world class player in my opinion.

 

[Big Ewis]

Finally Trinh-Duc gets another chance, he is by far the best French fly half and a world class player in my opinion.

it sure has all the ingredients of a fairytale right now. The return of the king sort of a vibe, and redemption and all that poetic stuff.....then again it could turn out to be a terrible terrible loss, Talès, a guy who's started the last 5 for France at a time when we'd only started to get some kind of balance and consistency in our half-back combination !!!!....both Parra and Talès down. Curse the Top14 and its insane, insane calendar. Curse it. What a blessing this agreement has come about, finally.

We're decimated by injury all the time...

I mean I know England have it quite bad too, and Ireland and somewhat a tad bit Wales, but we've got from our main crew:
Dusautoir, Parra, Talès, Fritz, Guitoune - as big, big, big losses.

And then:
Camille Lopez, Buttin, Lauret, Ouedraogo.

 

[gaston le gaff]

The funny thing is; if France do manage the win with so many injuries i cant wait to hear about the TOP 14 it's foreigners the problem it creates for the National team etc etc etc.
I hear that Renault are sponsoring free Chariots wheel repairs around Paris next Sat when the wheels start falling off the Rosbif Chariots sometime in the second half and a free service back to Blighty if they are unrepairable, good chappies these Renault guys.

 

[IRISH RUGBY MAN]

Has Trinh-Duc jumped straight into the 23 man squad or has plisson replaced Tales? If Trinh-Duc has gone straight in then Plisson must be feeling gutted.

 

[gaston le gaff]

No they are still 30 including Plisson, but 7 were allowed to play for their clubs this weekend,the 23 will be anounced later this week; i just think Trinh-Duc will make 10 as he has the experience and throwing an uncapped player in against England could have its problems, thats the way i see it but i am sure guys like Plisson Bonneval will get a chance during the 6 Nations.

 

[Big Ewis]

It's a total mess what PSA did. Confusing as hell. I won't go through it in detail, but I mean stuff like no. 15 J.M Buttin goes down and they call winger Marc Andreu up, out of the blue. Not to mention they initially called in 4 fullbacks when you look at Dulin, Buttin, Bonneval and Palis...A few random moves like that.

Surely Plisson will make an appearance at some point, but the 30 aren't available for every match, they'll have to pick before each given match who they want from the 30. Heck, even Morgan Parra might make an appearance, it's messed up this year...........but hey, at least we've got a pretty neat looking XV.

I'm very, very gutted in particular Dusautoir and Guitoune aren't playing. Very pisssed about that. And I love that Doussain will play, maybe even start, I love that player - but it's broken the nice, settled combo of 9-10 we had. No Parra, no Talès...so I must say, though I'm not a huge fan, I regret Talès's absence a bit.

 

[gaston le gaff]

Love to see Doussain play 9 with FTD at 10 both exciting players but FTD has planty of International experience and will not throw caution to the wind, but if the chances come he will certainly take them, loves getting over the gain line and needs the backrow very close if he does. Win for France but not by much

 

[Big Ewis]

well I personally project we'll win all matches but Cardiff. Sounds a bit ridiculous given we're coming off a Wooden Spoon, but ppl forget 3 out of 4 very very solid performances against the AB, one semi-good against the world 2nd Boks, and then the ease with which we took care of Tonga even while struggling big time on attack - we should've scored 6 or more, not 4, with chemistry in the backline...
I think ***le without GS...we'll see how accurate or foolish that sounds in two months time, I guess. But it's my honest sentiment.

I'd be more confident with Dusautoir and Guitoune, specifically, playing though !!!!....but hey..

 

[Big Ewis]

we need to start Maestri now, he's thicker and more adapted to physical battle on the ground, plus brings stability to the scrums. Flanquart was a good idea, a guy that tall and long for lineouts but he's just too light.

I would've loved to see Vahaamahina in there, he's a true warrior on the field, and got us good turnover ball, super solid on his feet in rucks. But not part of selection...

Slimani did well as a sub, and our scrum held, even a couple of good shoves and never looked in danger but will be tested again against the Italians next week.

 

[Holiver]

So Big Ewis, what did you think of Vahaamahina's stunning performance today ?
btw that Fofana try was brilliant

 

[Big Ewis]

all three tries were awesome to be honest, but I just LOVED the last one Fof to Huget to Bonneval !!

Vahaamahina ? dunno, didn't see much of him...but this is possibly due to the fact that he played 35 seconds.

 

[Holiver]

all three tries were awesome to be honest, but I just LOVED the last one Fof to Huget to Bonneval !!

Vahaamahina ? dunno, didn't see much of him...but this is possibly due to the fact that he played 35 seconds.

Yep poor Vahaamahina, I remember you wanted to see him play, right ? That's too bad for you mate..
Fofana is fast and unpredictable, I'm glad we have such a talented lad in our team, would you say he's among the fastest rugby union players in the world ?

 

[Big Ewis]

well Vahaamahina is a special specimen. We need to keep him in the XV, no doubt. Papé and Maestri are solid enough up front, but if he doesn't start for us he should at very least be on the bench.

Fofana ?...he's very fast, no doubt, but it's the quality of his running technically that's awesome rather than the raw speed.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Yep poor Vahaamahina, I remember you wanted to see him play, right ? That's too bad for you mate..
Fofana is fast and unpredictable, I'm glad we have such a talented lad in our team, would you say he's among the fastest rugby union players in the world ?

He doesn't look like one of the fastest at all. Maybe top accelerator or something like that.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Fofana aint very fast, he's a very good all round ball carrier though.

Fast, quick, agile, strong and powerful enough to beat people in many different situations.

 

[Big Ewis]

also he's stronger than ppl imagine. He resists tackles he shouldn't at 90kgs, breaks through some with excellent strength and can make some really nice ones himself. He really should've been tackled on that try of his after avoiding the first Italian tackle...what a finisher.

 

[Big Ewis]

It's great France has scored 6 tries in two matches, 3 in each, and hasn't conceded too many itself despite playing two teams that are on-form - BUT:

- that Huget try with the super high bounce was really lucky.
- 2 of 3 tries scored in each game are off no passes at all - even though the Fofana one is off very good team play before he picks it out the ruck for a personal exploit.

As some have said amongst the French specialists, we're still looking for our "reference game", a french expression meaning we still haven't produced "THE match" yet. We're too inconsistent within a same match, and we still need the attacking to be much more fluid and organized. Six tries in two meetings, yes, but 4 with no pass.
We aren't New Zealand, we can't make a living off turnover ball or lightning-quick, hyper-precision counter ball and tries at the end each time...it's worked so far, great, but clearly we need to work on that attack, and give it continuity.
What if we didn't have Huget, Fofana and co. ? Against Wales in Cardiff, we'll need to bring something superior to what we've seen so far. The defense has been very good, but then, again, the attack needs some fine-tuning.

 

[Big Ewis]

For whoever doesn't know this yet, would just like to extend François Trinh-Duc has been sent back, with Talès recovered and coming back to the 30-man group for the fly-half position.
FTD heralded by some as one of the best 10's in the world atm...and considered by a majority I'd say in France to be the best FH in the country...

Not sure whether PSA will look for continuity and keep the younger Plisson at 10 or whether he'll start him off the bench now that his favorite Talès is back.

Also, not sure when Parra returns to les Bleus. He's looked very much in form last week for Clermont, since his return, but Saint-André has extended his desire for continuity in the group and says he can't just throw Doussain back out after starting the tournament with him in two straight tests.

 

[welshglory]

Hahaha. Not many people consider ftd to be an international class 10 never mind world class.

Plisson and Lopez are miles ahead in France. He's probably a better 3rd choice than Tales and obviously Michalak though tbf.

Sir clive woodward's hype and the clueless british/irish media don't really know anything about french rugby. Especially the pundits and ex players, The analysts in the studios probably just find a few names on
Forums or listen out for guys who "stick out" in hc games.

 

[Big Ewis]

Hahaha. Not many people consider ftd to be an international class 10 never mind world class.

Plisson and Lopez are miles ahead in France. He's probably a better 3rd choice than Tales and obviously Michalak though tbf.

Sir clive woodward's hype and the clueless british/irish media don't really know anything about french rugby. Especially the pundits and ex players, The analysts in the studios probably just find a few names on
Forums or listen out for guys who "stick out" in hc games.

oh but I wasn't talking about Woodward or anybody else from those circles. He's (FTD) now got much of what he was criticized for before. And he's got one thing very, very few 10's in the world have. An attack-minded style. Lopez is "miles ahead of FTD", is he ? and Plisson, the rookie there ??...hehe.....I dunno, you must have a point, surely...you're saying this with so much confidence, it must be true.
aaaah, must say that was pretty funny.

Anyways: thank you for your message on here...