Embarrassment of riches at half-back for France?

brandon_flowers

From watching the HC final at the weekend and the performance of Skrela it keeps coming into my head about the French and their team selections.

Even though the have a ridiculous amount of talent at half-back do you think they will settle on a stable partnership before the World Cup or will they keep tinkering with the selection and end up either destroying teams with their running or crumbling miserably under pressure?

Choose from

JB Ellisalde
P Mignoni
J Dupuy
F Michalak
D Yachvilli
M Parra
L Beauxis
D Skrela
F Trinh-Duc

I think that covers it but I might have left someone out, it is a slow Monday morning after all.

shawpower

I thought they pretty much had settled on a half back partnership; Parra and Skrela? I think they played every game of the 6N, so I think you can assume that Lievremont has picked his 1st choice pairing.

brandon_flowers

shawpower wrote: »

I thought they pretty much had settled on a half back partnership; Parra and Skrela? I think they played every game of the 6N, so I think you can assume that Lievremont has picked his 1st choice pairing.

Parra and Trinh Duc played every game with Michalak on the bench in the 6N.

Ciaran-Irl

shawpower wrote: »

I thought they pretty much had settled on a half back partnership; Parra and Skrela? I think they played every game of the 6N, so I think you can assume that Lievremont has picked his 1st choice pairing.

You mean Trinh-Duc & Parra surely?

Dupuy might get the nod for the World Cup as well. He was first choice until the ban.

What I envy about France more than anything is that continue to have these world class half backs that can kick points and cover the out half position to a world class level. This allows their bench to have a centre + back three player, or to have a 5/2 split, depending on the opposition they are going to face.

Leinster trying out P'OD at out half might have been a vague attempts to be able to have one player cover the two half back places. Kidney has moved T'OL to out half before as well, but it seems an unlikely prospect that Ireland will ever get to the versatility level of the French half backs.

JBE retired just after the Hcup

Jemo

He made his mind up some time ago that Trinh-Duc would be his 10, with Parra and Dupuy mainly fighting for the 9 jersey in recent times. Unfortunately Ellisalde is retiring, I wish he had decided to have a swansong year with Leinster, hes absolutely class :-). Lievremont has came out and said too that he sees Michelak as a scrumhalf and is mainly using him as bench cover. Skrela is certainly making a case at the moment to oust Trinh-Duc from the 10 jersey in my opinion. But yeh, an absolute embarassment of riches. It would be nice to see POD developed in that way, its a great option to have, but I don't see it happening, as his gametime next year will be severely limited. Reddan and Boss will be fighting for the scrumhalf and bench spot, so unless POD is employed primarily as outhalf cover or ousts one of the incumbants, he will likely struggle next year unfortunately

shawpower

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

You mean Trinh-Duc & Parra surely?

Sorry. Yeah. Brain freeze moment.

outwest

trin duc is the perfect outhalf for france,

good tackler, good runner get the backline moving,

people here might not rate him because of little hcup game time, but he the top outhalf in europe soon, he is only 23,

parra and duprey will be slugging it out for the 9, freddie will be sub as he cover both 9 and 10

d'Oracle

Deleted User wrote: »

JBE retired just after the Hcup

I missed that.
Sorry to see him go.

PhatPiggins

outwest wrote: »

trin duc is the perfect outhalf for france,

good tackler, good runner get the backline moving,

people here might not rate him because of little hcup game time, but he the top outhalf in europe soon, he is only 23,

parra and duprey will be slugging it out for the 9, freddie will be sub as he cover both 9 and 10

I dont agree witht he majority of that. Trinh Duc looks good behind a dominant pack but in the 50/50 games his fraility in defence and with the boot are too easily exposed. If you want to see the real Trinh Duc watch him play for Montpellier when his pack are getting hammered.

France have ridiculous strenght at 9 but they dont have a 10 that would start for any of the other top 7 teams and in my opinion thats why they wont win a World Cup.

outwest

but their but only australlia will troublr them in the scrum,

trin duc is a good player, and france will win the world cup because they have a outhalf that bring the best out of his back outside him.

BoarHunter

PhatPiggins wrote: »

I dont agree witht he majority of that. Trinh Duc looks good behind a dominant pack but in the 50/50 games his fraility in defence and with the boot are too easily exposed. If you want to see the real Trinh Duc watch him play for Montpellier when his pack are getting hammered.

France have ridiculous strenght at 9 but they dont have a 10 that would start for any of the other top 7 teams and in my opinion thats why they wont win a World Cup.

Totally agree with this. TD plays well as long as his pack is dominant. We saw against Wales that as soon as the forwards are a bit in the red, there is panic in the organization. however he has a splendid passing game. the speed of the ball out of his hands is incredible and it often makes the difference against a sliding defense. I hope he will improve in his vision and kicking becasue lievremont has clearly stated that he was the number one.

BoarHunter

where the rich problem stands is the center :

Jauzion, Traille, Mermoz, Marty, bastareaud, Fritz, David .... 2 of them won't have a ticket for the WC :eek:

outwest

they also have the best back 3 in world rugby, if there ever all fit at the same time.

all sign point to france winnign world cup

duckysauce

BoarHunter wrote: »

where the rich problem stands is the center :

Jauzion, Traille, Mermoz, Marty, bastareaud, Fritz, David .... 2 of them won't have a ticket for the WC :eek:

is bastareaud allowed back into new zealand ?;)

themont85

The problem with France is that they are just so mentally inconsistant. Yes they've won plenty of Slams (some poor tournaments in fairness) but they have a tendancy to really focus onto one game and treat that as their final. New Zealand in 1999 and 2007, which were performances for the ages were followed with so so efforts. In the last two years they focused on beating Wales in Stade and then us this year, they have a real party pooper mentality. Although in saying that this will probably the strongest pre Cup squad they ever field in 2011, I still like Australia though.

BoarHunter

duckysauce wrote: »

is bastareaud allowed back into new zealand ?;)

I wouldn't mind leaving him home. I just think Florian Fritz is the best outside center in France at the moment. he just have a hot/Cold relationship with lievremont.

Jemo

They do have a lot of depth in every position with the second row probably their weakest point although superior to most other teams regardless! Does anyone know what happened to Yannick Nyanga? He had a ridiculous amount of potential only a couple of years back.

thomond2006

Jemo wrote: »

They do have a lot of depth in every position with the second row probably their weakest point although superior to most other teams regardless! Does anyone know what happened to Yannick Nyanga? He had a ridiculous amount of potential only a couple of years back.

Nyanga has been injured.

Jemo

Thanks Thomond. I hope he comes back well from it, he was a lovely attacking player, he was awesome in the Toulouse Leinster 1/4 final in 2007.

Podge_irl

outwest wrote: »

all sign point to france winnign world cup

I dunno about that, but they definitely deserve it. It would be nice to have another NH winner and it's a shame that France haven't won it yet given some of their amazing WC performances.

irishbucsfan

outwest wrote: »

they also have the best back 3 in world rugby, if there ever all fit at the same time.

all sign point to france winnign world cup

Not really. They're the best team in the Northern Hemisphere at the moment, but they are not nearly favourites, and rightly so.

BoarHunter

BoarHunter wrote: »

I wouldn't mind leaving him home. I just think Florian Fritz is the best outside center in France at the moment. he just have a hot/Cold relationship with lievremont.

Having said that, Fritz is now in the team for South Africa. Jauzion is off.

Well deserved selection !

PhatPiggins

outwest wrote: »

they also have the best back 3 in world rugby, if there ever all fit at the same time.

all sign point to france winnign world cup

At 10/1 you should make a few quid then. They'll have to beat NZ twice to do it, think they can?

They've been beaten in the last 3 WC's mainly because they've had their player maker at 9 and a flake at 10, the opposition (usually Engalnd) slowed down every ball and held the 9 in every ruck/maul. Slow a French team down that much and its game over.

They have probably their best pack in a long time though so maybe they grind a few games out.

BoarHunter

PhatPiggins wrote: »

At 10/1 you should make a few quid then. They'll have to beat NZ twice to do it, think they can?

we just have to beat them only once if we don't so it in the group that doesn't really matter as we will still be alive in the competition.

And we definitly can beat them in a WC revenge of 1987 finale !