RBS 6 Nations - France vs England - 11/03/2012, 15:00

[Feicarsinn]

Stade de France (11/03/2012 - 15:00)

Ref: Alain Rolland​

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Jesus, not another Ireland France match.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Ugh, I'm a moron. Fixed.

 

[lucky number 7]

Jesus, not another Ireland France match.

Please no.

 

[Peat]

Come on boys, another crack at it and you might beat them for once...

This is tricky. On the one hand, I don't want to lose. On the other, I don't want to de facto hand the Championship to Wales. Tricky tricky tricky...

Beat them, enrage them so much that they rampage all over the taffs, beat Ireland, win Six Nations. Perfect.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I think France will beat Wales regardless of whether we beat France or not.

No idea how this match will go. If England play like they did vs Wales (- the stupid subs at the end of the game), and France play like they did vs Ireland we may just squeak it.

 

[Big Ewis]

Heyyyy now, not so fast laddies ! Zis match iz in Paris, ah yes !...
No but seriously now. Watching Italy and Scotland VS England this year, I thought we'd destroy the brits. But obviously, the human psyche reflects upon the latest images; and with Ireland's draw and England's almost victory against Wales...Skepticism is showing its ugly face. And uh...damn. It looks butt-ugly.
I HATE not knowing for sure or at least a good idea of what'll happen !...

Could you imagine England winning this tournament lol ?! With the avg squad they've got ?!...If they beat France and Ireland, and France beats Wales...

 

[Seaton]

Heyyyy now, not so fast laddies ! Zis match iz in Paris, ah yes !...
No but seriously now. Watching Italy and Scotland VS England this year, I thought we'd destroy the brits. But obviously, the human psyche reflects upon the latest images; and with Ireland's draw and England's almost victory against Wales...Skepticism is showing its ugly face. And uh...damn. It looks butt-ugly.
I HATE not knowing for sure or at least a good idea of what'll happen !...

Could you imagine England winning this tournament lol ?! With the avg squad they've got ?!...If they beat France and Ireland, and France beats Wales...

I worry of this too, but with Wales still to play Italy...

But a more important point, I highly recommend you rephrase the bit about thrashing the Brits, and then being surprised by the draw to Ireland, I can't imagine many from across the Irish Sea would take kindly to it...

 

[mstar]

I really think France are there for the taking, looking at their organisation a A game England (like against Wales until subs came on) can really upset the French. One area that worrys me is the scrum. France seem to set up by relying on their scrum as its a very powerful unit. I am not sure how England can handle it at key stages of the game.

The game will be in my opinion be won on who can retain disipline and not give away penalties. As on paper i can't seperate the two teams. Englands Defence is better organised, tactially better. But france seem good in attack. Its difficult.

I want lancaster to start with the team against Wales. and keep youngs on the bench.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I want lancaster to start with the team against Wales. and keep youngs on the bench.

I expect we'll see the same XV, with Palmer coming on to the bench for the injured Lawes.
Will be interesting to see which one of Flood/Hodgson gets the 21 shirt. Flood had a good game for Tigers, but I wouldn't want him coming on at 60 minutes if we were 3/6/9 pts behind, and the pack getting a beating.
All my fingers and toes crossed that Doran-Jones gets the nod over Stevens....

 

[mstar]

matt stevens for all his good scrumming gives away to much penalties. He is the "old guard" who still has the deadly poison of lack of displine in the martin johnson reign. He seems to confuse me as it highlights to me he is either to dense as a human being or still doesn't understand the rules of the game, when playing with southern/nortern hempisphere referees.

I think rowntree is to much in love with stevens to drop him.

 

[jaunard06]

The game will be in my opinion be won on who can retain disipline and not give away penalties. As on paper i can't seperate the two teams. Englands Defence is better organised, tactially better. But france seem good in attack. Its difficult.

Yesterday we were poor in attack and good in defence. We gave away only 4 penalties (!) and one of the irish tries comes from a huge individual error.

 

[mstar]

I still think France have more creativity then England thou.

 

[Big Ewis]

Yesterday we were poor in attack and good in defence. We gave away only 4 penalties (!) and one of the irish tries comes from a huge individual error.

Yeah...the other from Aurélian Rougerie's braincells obviously struggling.

 

[Big Ewis]

I still think France have more creativity then England thou.

...and yes, I was about to make that comment. England seem to lack speed and creativity on attack. This game will be entirely different from say France-Scotland. Quite the opposite really.
But there's still a lot of young blood in that english team...we're not sheltered from a quick display of youth and opportunistic cunning.

 

[B10]

I wonder if Tom Wood will be training with the squad this week. Obviously we would send him back to Northampton for the weekend but good to see him get 20 minutes yesterday.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

I wonder if Tom Wood will be training with the squad this week. Obviously we would send him back to Northampton for the weekend but good to see him get 20 minutes yesterday.

I didn't realise he was playing, that's really good news. I don't think he#ll be rushed in, shame he's a couple of weeks two late in recovering from injury.

Mrstar, although in general you're right, yesterday it was the other way round' France did not look so great in attack, and were strong in defence. This said, the attacking problems were largely Rougerie's fault for being pants.

I know we played well against Wales, but if we play equally well, and France perk up their game by 20%, they'll win fairly comfortably. On the other hand if we can be more precise and make a few key changes, we're not far off from clicking. Tuilagi is literally insane, none of the big welsh backs could really tackle him very convincingly, which was some small consolation. If he starts and plays his same game, I'm tipping him to score. Alternatively, if he keeps punching holes and our back three can be a little more precise, we'll always have a chance.

Agree with Olly, Doran-Jones would be a good bet for the bench. Sharples into the XV would be good.

 

[gingergenius]

Heyyyy now, not so fast laddies ! Zis match iz in Paris, ah yes !...
No but seriously now. Watching Italy and Scotland VS England this year, I thought we'd destroy the brits. But obviously, the human psyche reflects upon the latest images; and with Ireland's draw and England's almost victory against Wales...Skepticism is showing its ugly face. And uh...damn. It looks butt-ugly.
I HATE not knowing for sure or at least a good idea of what'll happen !...

Could you imagine England winning this tournament lol ?! With the avg squad they've got ?!...If they beat France and Ireland, and France beats Wales...

No, Wales have done the hard part in winning in Dublin and London. Italy will be a walk in the park for them, and this French team doesn't look like it can concentrate long enough to beat Wales in Cardiff.

That said, they should be favourites to turn England over in Paris. This will be a really big few weekends for England - there was no pressure on them pre-tournament, but now we've seen that England might have the makings of a half decent side, they'll know that one of these next 2 games has to be won - 3 from 5 would not be a bad return.

Personally I think we bloody well ought to beat Ireland at home, but something tells me we won't. This game could go both ways - France are on the brink of being a very dangerous side, but they also look very beatable at the same time. If England can get under their skin and score some tries then I reckon an upset will be in the pipeline... if not then the French will prove too experienced and a little too classy I fear.

PS.

Selection wise, I think it should be bloody obvious - Stevens out of the 22 for PDJ, and keep it at that. No chance of them finding an openside in time, and with Simpson out we'll have to put up with Youngs as 20.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sharples into the XV would be good.

Agreed, however after missing the Tigers game through injury I can't see it.
Then again, after Gloucester getting smashed it won't have tainted him at all

 

[j'nuh]

This game could go both ways - France are on the brink of being a very dangerous side, but they also look very beatable at the same time. If England can get under their skin and score some tries then I reckon an upset will be in the pipeline... if not then the French will prove too experienced and a little too classy I fear.

France have been on the brink of looking a dangerous side for the last 4 years, and there's been little improvement. I don't want to underestimate France, but at the same time they've done very little to justify their favourites tag, and an England win imo wouldn't be an upset. (At least, not after the way we played against Wales. I'd have an entirely different view of this match if it was on the back of those performances against Italy and Scotland.)

I'd go with the same team and be inclined to put Wood/Clark on the bench. Don't care how well Hodgson is doing, too short-termist having him on the bench. Flood keeps his place.