France v Wales

[Cymro]

Wales: Lee Byrne; Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams; Stephen Jones, Michael Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Adam Jones, Ian Gough, Alun Wyn Jones, Ryan Jones (capt), Martyn Williams, Andy Powell.
Replacements: Huw Bennett, John Yapp, Luke Charteris, Dafydd Jones, Dwayne Peel, James Hook, Gavin Henson.

 

[An Tarbh]

so the Orange one is on the bench and ickle regains his place on the wing having missed the England match, so pretty much as expected for Wales.

 

[Cymro]

Dissapointed John Thomas did not make the bench over Luke Chateris!

 

[Sir Speedy]

Henson? Groan...

We need to overcome the Roberts dilemma in midfield. He was used far too often against England, so him making some dummy runs at Jauzion-Fritz to make space for Shanklin and even Byrne to come in from deep should solve that.
Otherwise no problems. A side I believe will win if we turn up. Obviously there's the old 'Which France will turn up?' factor, but I haven't seen anything like this from them under Lievremont... They've just been putting out consistently good performances - nothing spectacular, and nothing we can't handle if we put them under pressure.

 

[Stillknox]

Almost the entire french squad played this week end in Top 14, Toulouse and Clermont even played sunday so there will be only 5 days to recover for 50% of our team. Beauxis, who was announced forfeit for this round and maybe for the Welsh game too finally played against Toulon and he added another minor injury to his list after a Van Nierkek tackle... and so far there is still no back-up fly half on the bench.

How are we supposed to beat the welsh (or anyone...) with such an idiot schedule ?

 

[An Tarbh]

I thought they would have moved the games to Friday or at least the matches involving players in the French setup.

 

[Stillknox]

Beauxis and Mermoz are out...

In: François Trinh-Duc, and a (massive) surprise: Matthieu Bastareaud.

 

[cyRil]

That guy is the Stade centre isn't he? I watched him against our u20s at Rodney Parade last year and he was immense. He weighs like 17 stone 4 lbs!! I would not like him running at me.

 

[Sir Speedy]

Darn, why couldn't Skrela've been called in?
Is Bastareaud starting?

 

[Stillknox]

Hope so, Bastareaud has a lot of imperfection ("pass the ball, fat ass !") but at least he can add the power that we miss in the midfield since the ban of Fritz. Baby is not a second centre to me.

Bastareaud + Chabal = french flair !

 

[Sir Speedy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Stillknox @ Feb 23 2009, 05:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Hope so, Bastareaud has a lot of imperfection ("pass the ball, fat ass !") but at least he can add the power that we miss in the midfield since the ban of Fritz. Baby is not a second centre to me.

Bastareaud + Chabal = french flair ![/b]

Yeh, I thought he looked like the type of player who'd aim for CRASH-BANG-WALLOP-CRASH-BANG-WALLOP etc, constantly, instead of passing the ball. Suits us to be honest; he won't get through Roberts.

 

[Stillknox]

Yeah he cannot pass but he can carry the ball with 3 plays hanging on him. He's a really good player for a team like Stade who plays XIII most of the time... with Les Bleus v.Lievremont it's a curious call but why not, if we manage to get fast ball behind him it could be interesting.

With Trinh-Duc in, there is no real goalkicker for France. I think that Lievremont is a little depressive at the moment so he try to run a suicidal mission against Wales. Sounds fun !

My XV:

Domingo - Keyser - Mas
Nallet © - Chabal
Ouedraogo - Hari - Dusautoir
Parra - Trinh-Duc
Malzieu - Jauzion - Bastareaud - Heymans
Médard

 

[Mr.cyclopede]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Feb 23 2009, 05:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I thought they would have moved the games to Friday or at least the matches involving players in the French setup.[/b]

Toulouse / Clermont has been played on Sunday because these fu.....g football players don't accept to run on the playground the day after a rugby match. Could maybe understand if we were in any rainy country, but we're talking about Toulouse, not Cardiff !

 

[elgringoborracho]

Now we're really doomed

 

[elgringoborracho]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (elgringoborracho @ Feb 23 2009, 07:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Now we're really doomed[/b]

We have no kicker at all, Trinh Duc is not on good form at the moment. Apart from a RWC 99 Semi-final effect, we will get spanked hard in Paris

 

[cyRil]

I'm liking the sounds emanating from the Frenchies!

 

[Mr.cyclopede]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cyRil of Ospreylia @ Feb 23 2009, 08:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I'm liking the sounds emanating from the Frenchies! [/b]

"A vaincre sans péril on triomphe sans gloire"...

Will try to find the translation of this declamation from Corneille's part "Le Cid"

This was my cultural minute !!

 

[shazbooger]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Stillknox @ Feb 23 2009, 05:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Bastareaud + Chabal = french flair ![/b]

Sounds like fun to me. At least we know someone is probably going to get hurt!

 

[cyRil]

It's lucky they didn't play against the Scots. The whole team would be in the ICU!

 

[Thingimubob]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Stillknox @ Feb 23 2009, 06:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Yeah he cannot pass but he can carry the ball with 3 plays hanging on him. He's a really good player for a team like Stade who plays XIII most of the time... with Les Bleus v.Lievremont it's a curious call but why not, if we manage to get fast ball behind him it could be interesting.

With Trinh-Duc in, there is no real goalkicker for France. I think that Lievremont is a little depressive at the moment so he try to run a suicidal mission against Wales. Sounds fun !

My XV:

Domingo - Keyser - Mas
Nallet © - Chabal
Ouedraogo - Hari - Dusautoir
Parra - Trinh-Duc
Malzieu - Jauzion - Bastareaud - Heymans
Médard[/b]

Gonna be interesing matching Roberts and Bastareaud up, isince Roberts can also carry with 3 hanging off him, but does actually have a very good passing and kicking game (people forget he was a fullback, and only didn;t play there to start wityh for the Blues because of Ben Blairs decent form.)
Just heard about Brains's latest dodge of the French Alcohol Advertisement laws:
TRY
ESSAIS
not too shabby, I like very much.