[2019 Six Nations] England vs France (10/02/2019)

VS
​

Twickenham Stadium
15:00, 10/02/2019​

 

Worried about this.
Can we repeat our performance from this weekend? Which France will show up? (Delighted to be able to ponder that question again, there's been something wrong with the world when France haven't been infuriatingly and randomly inconsistent)
If both teams play like they did in their first halves, then we're in for a delight of a match. If it's like the second half then the only question would be when we put 50 points on them

 

*Arrogance intensifies*

 

My team would be;

Mako
George
Sinckler
Launchbury
Kruis
Wilson
Curry
Billy

Youngs
Farrell
May
Tuilagi
Slade
Nowell
Daly

Bench
LCD
Genge
Williams
Lawes
Shields
Robson
Ford
Cokanasiga

 

Winning in Ireland should give this England side plenty of confidence.
That French pack are huge, but still didn't best the Welsh , If England put points on the board from the inevitable French penalties, they could fall apart like the 2nd half against Wales.
Well, I can hope anyway.

 

So the first test of England’s consistency approaches. If we play as well as we did aginst Ireland then we will certainly defeat France at HQ (arrogance I know). And considering only Itoje will be missing there is no reason we shouldn’t.

But still there is the doubt. France are always such unknown quantity. Moments of brilliance, moments of madness. Could be put to the sword, or kill you with it.

I’m hoping for dry conditions and chance for both of us to show what we can do.

I’d imagine Jones will play exactly the same team but with Lawes in for Etoje, which I’m happy enough with. Would be cool to see what Big Joe could do if given a chance but can’t see Jones risking playing him against France.

Really hoping that The Ireland match wasn’t a false dawn for us and rather a new beginning.

 

I imagine Shields will be Hughes; if Eddie didn't think we needed a dedicated flanker to cover against Ireland, I doubt he'll feel we need one against France. I'd rather Morgan than either, but hey ho.

It'd be good to see Cokanasiga get a bit more time, but I wouldn't be too surprised if Eddie goes for no unforced changes.

 

I think Eddie Jones likes that Shields can play across the back row and lock if needed.

On a personal note, I think we should be looking to bring on more mobile forwards against a tiring French pack.

 

England and France bullied their opposition last week, they will try to start the same it worked once. I think France are coming back into the light, but ultimately England's game will be too strong for them,

 

Form aside, France have the ability and the bloody mindedness to be a banana skin for us. We absolutely cannot take them lightly.

The key for me is the first 20mins. They’ll be fired up, but we’ve shown recently (notably against Ireland and NZ), that we’re capable of coming out of the blocks with a fast, brutal start. If we can do the same against France and put 10-14 points on the board early, I suspect their heads will drop.

I’m very curious to see what Brunel does. Antonio being out is a disappointment for me as I think Slimani (most likely change IMO) will cause us more problems. Fofana’s injury also forces a change in the centres - the question is whether he sticks with Ntamack and just brings in Bastareaud or Fickou at 13 or completely changes it.

 

I think that this French team has the potential to challenge us if (and it's a monumental if) they fire for the full 80. Even so, if we play like we did against Ireland I think there is only one possible outcome.

Ntamack is a talent but the young lad isn't ready to face Tuilagi and I think he'll be in for a rough day if picked. I expect England to play a pressure based game, kick frequently and suffocate the French who will think "le **** it" after 25 mins and start chucking triple miss passes in their own 22.

99 times out of 100, England win this at a canter. The 1 time where the triple misses stick and the back 3 invoke Dominici, Clerc and Heymans, I think we are in trouble.

Either way, very much looking forward to seeing Picamoles, Sanchez, Parra and Huget throw their toys out of the pram when our pack gets stuck into them.

 

My brain clearly states if we can beat Ireland in Dublin we can beat France in London.

Honestly I was surprised with the nature of our win Saturday (or that we won at all).

We can lose this but it would take a dramatic drop of form and probably thinking too much about 2 weeks from now (which is arguably our most important fixture now).

 

We are definitely capable of following a great performance with a poor one. I have to say in London against the French that should (touch wood) still be a win, albeit a squeaky bum one - unless they play out their skins which is not impossible.

So, with my arse suitably covered, I do think we will win the fame. But a shaky win would obviously be disappointing. Building consistency of performance is as important as results this close to the World Cup

 

This game is just as big as Ireland in it's own way - if we lost this I'm say we be behind where we started the tournament.
I don't think we'll lose ( of course it's possible) but I don't know what kind of game we'll see.
France could turn up with the same head as last week and it could be a very close game, or they could have lost all faith after somehow losing to Wales and it could be a drubbing.
I don't know about Shields versus Hughes - I don't know if Shields is the sort of enforcer we want

 

Will Demba Bamba be back? (Azucar!).

 

Williams and Genge out; Cole and Moon in.


https://www.englandrugby.com/news/guinness-six-nations-england-squad-update-france-week/

 

Looks like Big Joe and Shields have also been reatained. Could Jones be looking for a more solid and technically proficient scrum? If so I’m not convinced we should be playing France at their own game. Surely better to have a quick dynamic mobile scrum, move the big French boys about and tire them early, creating lots of space around the frindges for Manu to attack etc.? It’s like we struggled massively against the Irish and they’re pretty good.

Really hope he doesn’t play around with the back row. Apparently Wilson and Curry made some 40 odd tackles between them. That’s epic and deserves to be rewarded with another start at HQ in front of a newly hopeful home crowd.

 

I think Jones is definitely looking to win the scrum battle with Cole and Moon retained for Williams and Genge. Cokanasiga also back. Wonder if he'll also be used for his power game.

 

The French scrum wasn't even particularly strong against Wales. The French forwards are massive but it didn't look like that translated into a strong scrum performance. At the very least I want to see us able to actually get the ball in and out of the scrum quickly. It infuriates me when we clearly have had weaker scrums in the past but are completely incapable or unwilling to get the ball out.

 

Yeah, weight doesn't equal skill.