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France v Wales, 09/02/13

Looking forward to every match this weekend an more this then Italy-Scotland, if Italy win in Scotland then - even more so then beating France at home, where everyone knows Italy will compete - it's really would signify that Italy have turned a page. Yet still think Scotland will win, especially if it ****** down.

This ones intriguing... Wales in the WC were conditioned to the extreme, would of beat anything in front of them if Warburton hadn't got himself sent off. Wales are not at those extremes of fitness how ever, an they seem to me to be a team looking at holes in the once fabulous starting XV an ... meh. I'm just waiting for Wales to turn up from the go. They've turned into an extreme version of France. Saying that France look poorly conditioned atm too.

France will up for this at home, hoping Wales turn up an we get a good game. If the French front up like they did against Italy then i think Wales have a chance.

edit. Just saw the French starting team, not too many changes, keeping the faith with Mich, yet still no Parra...
 
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So Bastareaud comes in...which means that with Mermoz and him we will be defensively very slow.
Huget, I'm still not convinced and would target him if I were on the other side. And Forestier which is not as fit as in november will certainly suffer in scrums, I would have given Debaty/Kayser a chance, but maybe that's my ASM bias.
Fofana on the wing, I can understand it given the lack of any other option, but honestly what a mess....

PSA says that we don't change a team that lost. This would make sense if the issue was only fitness, unfortunately some choices in the team selection remain weird.
 
Welsh team for Saturday, 3 changes:

15. Leigh Halfpenny
14. Alex Cuthbert
13. Jonathan Davies
12. Jamie Roberts
11. George North
10. Dan Biggar
9. Mike Phillips
8. Toby Faletau
7. Justin Tipuric (c)
6. Ryan Jones
5. Ian Evans
4. Andrew Coombs
3. Adam Jones
2. Richard Hibbard
1. Gethin Jenkins

16. Ken Owens, 17. Paul James, 18. Craig Mitchell, 19. Lou Reed, 20. Aaron Shingler, 21. Lloyd Williams, 22. James Hook, 23. Scott Williams

Only changes were forced by injury and players returning from injury.

Warburton out with a shoulder stinger, Ryan Jones to return and captain the team.

If Tipuric fails to perform, I reckon it's proof that both play better in tandem. Look at his display against Samoa, he was anonymous with Warburton off, but he was outstanding coming on against NZ, Australia and Ireland. Likewise, Warburton seems to add 15% when Tips enters the fray.

Glad Coombs his retained, he deserves it after an excellent display. Confused about Olly Kohn's exclusion, Lou Reed isn't going to add much off the bench...
 
Wales have released James King, Ryan Bevington, (Ospreys), Josh Turnbull (Scarlets), Josh Navidi, Scott Andrews and Andries Pretorius (all Blues) back to their regions for this weekend’s action. Unavailable for selection due to injury were Sam Warburton (Blues), Eli Walker (Ospreys), Olly Kohn (Harlequins) and Tavis Knoyle (Scarlets).
 
both captains down...
man........injuriiesssss......................:(
 
Could anybody from France clarify situation who is captain in France team? If I remember correctly, last year Six Nations captain was Dusatoir (and also wiki page says that he still is the captain of France team)... So why this year it is Pape? Just because Dusatoir just came back from injury?

With all due respect to Saint-Andre, I liked insane Lievremont selection more, as it worked much more :D I miss him in international rugby, such a colourful character.
 
^ some ridiculous selections and performances, stupid stupid stuff...I like Lievremont, the man too. A lot in fact, a lot of charisma and balls...but as a coach, I think he got the respect of the players but then he'd just make silly moves, simply. I think every french fan will say the same, I don't even think there's another "school of thought" on that...
And I'm starting to doubt PSA just a little bit...thought he'd finally straightened up France those Nov tests, but then again.......

Yeh Papé down, Dusautoir captain again.
 
Im glad to see the changes! Biggar needs a big game
 
yoe91 said:
^ some ridiculous selections and performances, stupid stupid stuff...I like Lievremont, the man too. A lot in fact, a lot of charisma and balls...but as a coach, I think he got the respect of the players but then he'd just make silly moves, simply. I think every french fan will say the same, I don't even think there's another "school of thought" on that...
And I'm starting to doubt PSA just a little bit...thought he'd finally straightened up France those Nov tests, but then again.......

Yeh Papé down, Dusautoir captain again.
Click to expand...

I'd rather say this was his way of coaching and the relation with the players and so on that were "special". I don't really remember having seen strange selections for example; of course there was that continuous turnover with the players but what I mean is that a given team looked "normal", not like having for exp. Forestier playing instead of Domingo, or having Fofana playing as a winger. The best available players - at least what most of people interested in rugby would have considered so - were generally on the field or on the bench at least.

Lievremont got us a Grand Slam and we're vice world champions with an amazing game in final against the best team in the world, so this is finally not that bad. And PSA for the moment only managed to become World Champion of Friendlies, this is not enough to say "phew happy to see him instead of Marc". We just got one of our worst rankings in 6N last year and this year it seems we're going to achieve the same level of performance...but here I may be wrong ?

--
Edit: under Lievremont we also consistently beat England which does not happen so often especially during the WC.
 
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^ yes I do think like I said Lievremont was close to his players. I've seen the way he talked to them a few times for e.g....and regardless of beating England with more consistency (we did take a pounding in 2009, 6N, remember ?), we had that TERRIBLE TERRIBLE 2010 year.
I mean the test matches against SH teams. We got the Grand Slam that year in March, but then a big defeat in SA but more notably a monster defeat in Argentina and then that nightmare of the Aussies visiting and putting 60 on us after a good first half...
things like the last two there, are inexcusable. We looked like a Tier 2, possibly tier 3 nation. Losing by 30 points away against Argentina (we got our revenge at home though that year), and then having a visiting side drop 60 on us AT HOME. Tier 2 nation...

Our crazy fluctuation during the '11 RWC to me, it's not as simple as just dropping the old "french inconsistency" argument. Inconsistent, yes obviously, but why ? I think during Lievremont we've been the most typically inconsistent, and I don't know, I wasn't there in the locker rooms or nothing, but I would imagine he didn't federate them accordingly, couldn't bring them to play their best. He may have not motivated them enough, despite his closeness to them because he's a very cool guy and very young for a coach.
One moment we're playing monster defense, the other we're taking a POUNDING at home. RWC: one moment we're taking 20 from Canada and Japan, the next NZ can't score on us the entire match (except the one of course).

I think the whole French potential VS what the French team actually does on the field ratio was very very apparent, the most in fact possibly during that 2009-11 stretch. We were beating the AB, then losing badly to this team, then making the RWC Final, despite losing to Tonga...etc....crazy roller coaster those 3 yrs.

(I'd invite you to relive those results here:
http://stats.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/records/team/match_results_year.html?id=1;type=class
check out 2009-10-11 for France).
 
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It's getting there. I think we all know my position on James and Geth, and I have said everything so no point repeating it.
Hope Ryan is ready to go. He is a great player on his day, and a more natural captain than Sam.

Where is Rees? Not in the 23, not injured, not released? It's like he has left our dimension (Llanelli does seem like it, sometimes).
 
yoe91 said:
we had that TERRIBLE TERRIBLE 2010 year.
I mean the test matches against SH teams. We got the Grand Slam that year in March, but then a big defeat in SA but more notably a monster defeat in Argentina and then that nightmare of the Aussies visiting and putting 60 on us after a good first half...
things like the last two there, are inexcusable. We looked like a Tier 2, possibly tier 3 nation. Losing by 30 points away against Argentina (we got our revenge at home though that year), and then having a visiting side drop 60 on us AT HOME. Tier 2 nation...
Click to expand...

I'm okay to see France being raped by Georgia, Romania and Japan every year in friendly if on the other side we win the GS every year......
 
^ well yeh but that doesn't cancel out the main point. The main point (still valid right now in fact: DOMINATION November leads to loss in Italy) is stability. We can't guarantee our status as brilliant for too long, and especially not under Lievremont.
England's famous 2001-03 side: the best thing about it was consistency. Sure they had great forwards, some good backs and all - but they're not that famous for the actual quality of their game per se. It's the mindset. They played like they were STARVED every game.
Not to take anything away from them, really really not, I respect that side a lot - but with the myriad of quality sides we've had that had in them beating the AB of any era, making the RWC Finals 3 of 7, winning 9 Grands and other impressive feats...and knowing we've had both excellent forwards AND backs, surely we could have had access to that legendary status. But we're anything BUT invincible ever. We beat invincible teams though, once or twice even. But then we fall on our faces...in a way that easily could've been avoided. And THAT - is precisely who we were during the 2009-10-11 run, RWC being the pinnacle of the Lievremont era, and perhaps the most perfect paradigm.

Under Lievremont, it was just the greatest roller coaster of all time possibly for France.
 
yoe91 said:
^ well yeh but that doesn't cancel out the main point. The main point (still valid right now in fact: DOMINATION November leads to loss in Italy) is stability. We can't guarantee our status as brilliant for too long, and especially not under Lievremont.
England's famous 2001-03 side: the best thing about it was consistency. Sure they had great forwards, some good backs and all - but they're not that famous for the actual quality of their game per se. It's the mindset. They played like they were STARVED every game.
Not to take anything away from them, really really not, I respect that side a lot - but with the myriad of quality sides we've had that had in them beating the AB of any era, making the RWC Finals 3 of 7, winning 9 Grands and other impressive feats...and knowing we've had both excellent forwards AND backs, surely we could have had access to that legendary status. But we're anything BUT invincible ever. We beat invincible teams though, once or twice even. But then we fall on our faces...in a way that easily could've been avoided. And THAT - is precisely who we were during the 2009-10-11 run, RWC being the pinnacle of the Lievremont era, and perhaps the most perfect paradigm.

Under Lievremont, it was just the greatest roller coaster of all time possibly for France.
Click to expand...
No offence but youre waffling . . . .
 
Just saw this. Jonathan Davies who is not a "natural passer" according to Wales skills coach Mark Jones, was one of the lowest scorers on Brian Moore's Mouth Challenge. On a par with Pudsey Bear and John Inverdale. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/9176198.stm

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diapo137fa5e4b26d495762cef2323e03a24f.gif
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