[2023 Six Nations] Italy vs France - 5 February 2023

[TRF_Olyy]

 

[TRF_Olyy]

The Italians and the French in an epic battle

 

[ncurd]

The Italians and the French in an epic battle

I don't think there will be anything Epic about this one except the scoreline.

Still not good for France, Italy usually front up beginning of tournament far better than the end so could be important for tie breakers.

 

[OllyM97]

Any chance of Italy making a game of this for at least 40 minutes or am I dreaming?. Probably the latter.

 

[duncanb]

Italy look in it for 60 but France by 10 , both have positives but just as many questions.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Pierre Bruno, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Tommaso Menoncello, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo' Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giamoco Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacments: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Federico Zani, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 Edoardo Iachizzi, 20 Giovanni Pettinelli, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Edoardo Padovani

France: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Ethan Dumortier, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont (c), 8 Gregory Alldritt, 7 Charles Ollivon, 6 Anthony Jelonch, 5 Paul Williams, 4 Thibault Flament, 3 Uini Atonio, 2 Julien Marchand, 1 Cyril Baille
Replacments: 16 Gaëtan Barlot, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Sipili Falatea, 19 Romain Taofifénua, 20 Thomas Lavault, 21 Seckou Macalou, 22 Nolann Le Garrec, 23 Mathieu Jalibert

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Curious to see the Italian wingers. Bruno looks a find but I dont know the other guy. Happy enough with Allan at 10, I dont think he is a big drop off from Garbisi.

France not messing about here and, thinking about it more, I think they'll be strictly business and intensely focused in a RWC year on home soil. So I think they'll put a shaky Italian defence to the sword. However, i do think Italy can get three tries here (I've only been picking them to score 2 a game for the last couple of years but there is significant improvement in their attack, even when they were getting spanked by the Boks).

France by 20 (more than 70 points in the game)

 

[Le Frére Alpha]

What's wrong with Garbisi?

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

What's wrong with Garbisi?

"sprained an internal ligament in his right knee "

He could make a return in round 4. Marin of Treviso is also unavailable at fly half and Allan was stretchered off with a head knock earlier in January. So things could get bad quickly if Allan takes a knock. Maybe they could ask Bergamasco out of retirement to have a stab in the 10 shirt for a bit of resilience.

 

[ntun82]

forza Ragazzi!

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Has BoD got a side gig teaching geography

 

[Which Tyler]

PA system didn't seem to work for the anthems... Well, the French anthem anyway

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Maybe England are right to ignore Gloucester players

 

[Wasps92]

FFS same old stupid **** from Italy. No excuse for that at this level.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Scrappy stuff this

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Blimey, those stands are very empty
Less than 50%?

 

[Which Tyler]

High octane stuff!

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Italy defence looks wayyyyy better than another team I could mention.

Scrumming well too

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Italy yet to settle. Hopefully they can do that before the game is over as a contest.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Dupont has got to be one of the strongest carrying SHs in the world.