[2025 Six Nations] England vs France - 08/02/25

[Vieux Talonneur]

Why cant we just play a 10 at 10 and a 15 at 15, idec if it's Marcus, Fin or George at this point. Hopefully it turns out to be a tactical master stroke.

Carry on like that and you’ll be suggesting a 12 at 12 next.

 

[Which Tyler]

Give me

9. Randall
10. F.Smith
11. M.Smith
12. Steward
13. Freeman
14. Lawrence
15. Slade

FTFY

 

[Saintjay]

I rate Fin Smith but shifting Marcus to 15 is a shabby way to treat him. Not really sure he can win here? He plays badly and gets criticised when people forget he's not a 15. He plays well and there's a higher change he gets stuck there until someone exposes him for not being a 15 and then gets dropped.

If Fin has a bad game, I guarantee we'll hear 'France is a tough debut start. He needs another go to be sure', 'the pack let him down' etc. The kind of excuses Marcus doesn't get.

I feel the same about Steward if he starts on the wing. Hope he has a stormer or he'll get dogs abuse and not his fault.

As for Fin Smith, he is starting against the arguably the best team in the world so yes it is a tough debut.

Marcus has been pretty roundly praised for his performances since November on here and in general from what I've seen. No forgetting he has 40 caps vs 7 for Fin. So Marcus isn't going to get the same amount of wiggle room, rightly or wrongly

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

FTFY

Now you’re just being silly. Everyone knows it should be:

9. Randall
10. F Smith
11. M Smith
12. Earl
13. S Simmonds
14. Steward
15. Slade

 

[Which Tyler]

Simmonds retired from international rugby when he moved to France - chuck Bar-beery in there

 

[NotTooAmused]

Steward on the wing would be an absolute disasterclass. LBB could run rings around him.

 

[TopTen2003]

Not against Marcus at 15 for France, gives us a bit of unpredictability and keeps them guessing a bit defensively.

They aren’t what I would say are a known high ball team so think we can get away with it- you probably wouldn’t do it against SA/NZ/IRE for example.

Massive test but I do think France are a much better side with Ntamack so should be a great contest.

 

[Half Pint]

Yep, let's do an Eddie and just throw a 15-sided dice to allocate starting numbers.
It's liquid rugby, boys, I'm the greatest coach in the world so if we lose it's on you boys.

 

[Rinkadink]

No, no...

9. Steward
10. Freeman

12. M. Smith
13. F. Smith

11. Lawrence
14. Slade
15. Mitchell

French analysis team would enter panic mode upon announcement. Lead England to the promised land, Borthwick. The people believe.

 

[IT157]

Slade covers

Slade covers 10. So if Marcus goes off Fin stays put and (hopefully) Steward comes in at 15. If both Smiths are nobbled then Slade moves into 10, and it may be the plan to have Daly on the bench who covers 15, centre and wing, so he comes in at centre with Steward at 15.

All this being said I still wonder whether these rumours are BS. Could SB have learnt from last weeks tactical error of releasing the team sheet too early, and be playing a cheeky smoke screen blinder to throw off the French? Doubt it, but heres hoping...

He seems like such a meat and potatoes guy that I doubt he would use such sneaky tactics.

 

[Scotty]

No, no...

9. Steward
10. Freeman

12. M. Smith
13. F. Smith

11. Lawrence
14. Slade
15. Mitchell

French analysis team would enter panic mode upon announcement. Lead England to the promised land, Borthwick. The people believe.

You joke but if these players can play multiple positions then Steward at 9 but actually plays wing and MSmith at 10 but actually plays FB. Nobody would see that coming!!!!

Pick your 15 of multiposition players and scramble!

 

[AlRums]

You joke but if these players can play multiple positions then Steward at 9 but actually plays wing and MSmith at 10 but actually plays FB. Nobody would see that coming!!!!

Pick your 15 of multiposition players and scramble!

Problem with Steward is he never passes the ball, he catches and runs, occasionally kicks, and that's it

 

[Ddanno]

"We lacked experience against Ireland"

7 cap fly half and someone that's played full back 7 times it is, then

 

[Rugbyfan564]

"We lacked experience against Ireland"

7 cap fly half and someone that's played full back 7 times it is, then

Seven caps as a replacement. He has never started!

 

[Saintjay]

"It's a tough defeat to take" "We had a new young fly-half". "He'll learn from this experience". "Week on week He'll keep improving".

Doing sound bites for the comms team can't be that difficult.

If we do lose, it'll work as a bit of deflection. If it comes off it'll be Borthwick genius.

 

[j-dawg]

A valiant England performance and France to sneak it, with lots of ‘we did better than the last time we lost’ in the post match interview

 

[ShropshireAllBlack]

A valiant England performance and France to sneak it, with lots of 'we did better than the last time we lost' in the post match interview

Define “valiant”, because I suspect France will be +20.

Unfortunately I just think it will be their year, with an Irish Triple Crown coming in a poor second best…

 

[Wasps92]

I think there's a lot of over the top negativity on here. This England team were a dodgy penalty away from winning in Paris last year after all. Has the chasm opened up that much in the last 12 months that people are talking about a 20 point loss at home? I don't think so.

I think it will be a close game tbh.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

I think there's a lot of over the top negativity on here. This England team were a dodgy penalty away from winning in Paris last year after all. Has the chasm opened up that much in the last 12 months that people are talking about a 20 point loss at home? I don't think so.

I think it will be a close game tbh.

If everything goes our way we could win, but I suspect it will be a mirror of the Ireland game - initially competitive, maybe even a bit of hope, but with France’s extra class and power coming through for a 10+ win. But if they’re on a good day and we’re not it could get very messy.

Last year Fra were definitely suffering a massive post RWC hangover. Plus their half backs won’t be Le Garrec and Ramos.

 

[Reiser99]

I think there's a lot of over the top negativity on here. This England team were a dodgy penalty away from winning in Paris last year after all. Has the chasm opened up that much in the last 12 months that people are talking about a 20 point loss at home? I don't think so.

I think it will be a close game tbh.

Yes the gap has opened. We're going backwards. Last year I was semi optimistic that Borthwick was getting us on the right path. While not perfect we were semi competitive in the 6Ns and then we looked good in the summer even if we did lose to NZ. Since then it feels like we've made no progress or gone backwards. Just look at the Smith and Smith combo. Borthwick has no idea who his best team even is.