Ireland vs France Match Thread, Sunday 13th February 3pm; Live on RTÉ/BBC

thomond2006

VS

Ireland:
15 Luke Fitzgerald, 14 Fergus McFadden, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (capt), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary,
8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Sean O'Brien, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.

Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Paddy Wallace.

France:
15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Maxime Médard, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra,
8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Thomas Domingo.

Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Jerome Thion, 19 Sébastien Chabal, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Yannick Jauzion, 22 Vincent Clerc.

Date: Sunday, February 13
Kick-off: 15:00
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin

Referee: Dave Pearson (England)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), David Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official: Geoff Warren (England)

Ireland host reigning Grand Slam champions France in the new home of Irish Rugby for the first time since Lansdowne Road’s redevelopment. This is a game that many Irish fans will fear and rightly so, for many years the French have proven to be Ireland’s undoing when chasing silverware.

From an Irish perspective, one must hope that the performance against Italy was simply down to rustiness. That may be an over-positive spin on things but Ireland surely cannot play that badly again, this time they are at home and they face a much tougher opposition. Ireland escaped Rome with their lives, but with their tails between their legs. While Italy were dogged and determined, they still lack true quality and Ireland could have put them away had it not been for an error strewn display. Many Irish forwards did not carry with purpose and were tackled behind the gain line, Gordon D’Arcy’s handling skills deserted him, even captain Brian O’Driscoll weighed in in the errors, throwing a Mike Tindall-esque pass to deny Fergus McFadden a simple score in the corner.

It is a cliché but Ireland must perform for 80 minutes to beat the French. It is a long time since Ireland’s performance level has been consistent throughout a match. During the autumn internationals, Ireland at best hit their stride for the entire first half against Argentina. In Rome, Ireland performed in patches. When not “performing”, Ireland look mediocre, pedestrian and ponderous. Crucially, unlike Wales they still know how to (just about) win games, Ronan O’Gara’s winning drop goal against Italy stemmed from Ireland’s confidence in believing they would win the game.

France got back on the horse with a win against Scotland but their performance in attack and defence tell two different tales. They were clinical on turnover ball and exposed Scotland with some dazzling play. The likes of Morgan Parra, Imanol Hardinordoquy and Maxime Medard were at their sublime best as France scored some excellent tries. The French scrum was supreme, it was a stunning display of power that the Irish front row will find near impossible to conquer. On the other hand, France’s defence was very porous. They missed an astonishing 25 tackles (Ireland missed just 3) and conceded 3 tries to a team that in most games would need to call in the IMF to buy a try.

Selections
France make two changes to the side that defeated Scotland. Maxime Mermoz injured his shoulder and requires surgery (ruling him out of the rest of the tournament and putting his World Cup place in doubt) so Damian Traille moves from fullback to inside centre. Clement Poitrenaud, a replacement last week, starts at number 15. Yannick Jauzion comes onto the bench.

There is a rationale behind Traille at 12. He can be used as a supporting kicker to Francois Trinh-Duc (indeed he is a better kicker out of hand than Trinh-Duc). Plus he is a big, strong runner that will run straight at Ireland’s defence to punch holes. This should be Lievremont’s strategy, since Traille lacks the creativity of Mermoz. Poitrenaud, one of the players of the Six Nations last year, gives France a very dangerous counterattacking weapon. If he can replicate his best form he is capable of ripping the best of defences to shreds. He also will have a chip on the shoulder from being bizarrely ignored by his country during the Autumn Internationals, having been left out instead of the hapless Jerome Porical.

Ireland make just one change, with Jamie Heaslip returning from injury to start at number eight. Sean O'Brien moves to blindside flanker while Denis Leamy only makes the bench. Shane Jennings drops out of the squad.

Andrew Trimble was passed fit for this game but doesn't feature. This is surprising as he has always been in Kidney's favour. The out of form Tomás O'Leary gets another run which I find quite disturbing. In a position where there are 3 good alternatives, to retain the worst of them is mindboggling.

Key Head to Heads:

Jamie Heaslip vs Imanol Harinordoquy: A contest that is worth the entrance fee alone as the top 2 number eights in Europe come up against each other. Heaslip features in his first game in a month after injury while Harinordoquy returned to the French side with a bang after a typical barnstorming performance against Scotland, after being omitted from the 22 against Australia in the autumn. Both players play similar roles for their respective sides, they are often looked to by their teammates to spark something special, they lead by example and they are their team's best ballcarrier. Both are getting better and better and their personal battle will be simply mouthwatering.

Healy, Best & Ross vs Domingo, Servat & Mas: The French front row will resemble a caged bull before the first scrum. They will be desperate to blow the Irish front row off the field in the set piece. It looked like feeding time at the zoo when the Domingo, Servat and Mas dismantled the Scottish scrum (with their highly rated tighthead Euan Murray). Against Italy there was evidence that the whole Irish pack was not pushing as hard as they could in the scrum. To the French this is a cardinal sin. One only has to look at the aggression on the faces of the likes of Dusautoir and Harinordoquy to know they are putting everything into their pushing. While there were serious questions hanging over the officiating of Roman Poite, the Irish scrum still did not perform as hoped and Cian Healy and Mike Ross did not dominate as they do when in Leinster colours. Against this mighty French trio, the scrum must be Operation Survival and nothing more for the Irish pack.

Tomás O'Leary vs Morgan Parra: Even a bigger mismatch than the scrum. O'Leary is retained despite there being many viable alternatives within the squad. As always when his pack are not dominating, he struggled against Italy. His service was poor, his boxkicking was poor, his decisions were poor. As usual his covering and defensive work was exemplary but this is nowhere near enough to justify his selection. Parra for France is in fantastic form and has emerged as a leader in the side, very much in the Jean Baptiste Elissalde mould. Unlike O'Leary, his scrum half skills are excellent and his decision making is usually spot on. He can claim a lot of credit for France's success in attack against Scotland. O'Leary can play a lot better but he hasn't performed at a decent standard for a long time and I feel Declan Kidney is on a hiding to nothing with this selection.

Prediction:
If the error count is low, there will be few scrums, France’s strongest weapon and Ireland’s permanent achilles’ heel. If the scrum is dominant factor in the game, France will own the ball and with their attacking ability, they will score tries. Ireland must play keep ball effectively when in possession and slowly build scores. Stopping Traille and Rougerie on the gain line will be critical, they will likely be used as crash ball merchants to create space out wide for France’s outstanding back three. Ireland have the big motivating factor of playing their first Six Nations fixture at the redeveloped Aviva Stadium, I believe this will get Ireland over the line...just. I hope for a repeat of this clash in 2009, where two forces collided and we were treated to a fantastic game of rugby. Ireland to sneak it by a score.

---

Player images taken from Sky Sports/Planet Rugby sources.

IRFU image taken from sportspeak.eu, FFR image taken from frenchclubrugby.com

Lineups/refs/date and time taken from Planet Rugby:
http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3820_6737716,00.html
http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_6742614,00.html

Everything else is my own work.

Rattlehead_ie

Always a pleasure to read these previews by some of the memebers here on Boards. Lets hope you're right with the score prediction thomond

Stev_o

Thomond it's only Wednesday and you'v done this already? I knew the pace in France was slow but god you's get a lot of free time


Anyway. I think we ll see a improved performance from last week. Won't be as many handling errors as there was against Italy and i do think we ll get a few line breaks. I still think we'll be far too eager to kick the ball away before having a go.

I see the scrum being a bit of a struggle with the power from the French locks really showing us up.

My guess is we ll score two tries and slot a few goals but i expect France to run in about 3 or 4 tries with one DG and one or two penalty shots.

Riskymove

Stev_o wrote: »

Thomond it's only Tuesday

er?

B0X

Gonna go for France by 12.

Otacon

Fantastic read again thomond.

Agree with you that TOL is a disturbing call. Don't agree with your Irish win prediction though [while I don't believe, I hope!]

Also...

thomond2006 wrote: »

Crucially, unlike Wales they still know how to (just about) win games, Ronan O’Gara’s winning drop goal against Ireland stemmed from Ireland’s confidence in believing they would win the game.

...think you meant Italy there

Stev_o

Riskymove wrote: »

er?

Oh sh*t..


Shows how slowly things are going for me right now

thomond2006

Otacon wrote: »

Fantastic read again thomond.

Agree with you that TOL is a disturbing call. Don't agree with your Irish win prediction though [while I don't believe, I hope!]

Also...



...think you meant Italy there

I actually did mean Wales, in reference to the fact that they haven't won against decent opposition for a long time but yet sometimes play well. But I agree that Italy is probably more correct at the moment.

Edit: Sorry slow moment above, good spot. Fixed.

SomeFool

I agree with you thomond, think we'll get it by a score, Heaslip being back is massive, my only concern is if he has the 80 mins in him. I don't think TOL or Healy are as poor as you'd think by reading here, must admit Wallace is a concern.

CouchSmart

thomond2006 wrote: »

I actually did mean Wales, in reference to the fact that they haven't won against decent opposition for a long time but yet sometimes play well. But I agree that Italy is probably more correct at the moment.

Think he was referring to this:

"Ronan O’Gara’s winning drop goal against Ireland"

errlloyd

Disappointing by Kidney really.

thomond2006

CouchSmart wrote: »

Think he was referring to this:

"Ronan O’Gara’s winning drop goal against Ireland"

haha oops I get it now.

Podge_irl

If we have an injury in the back three we are in serious trouble as we'll have the exact same problem we had last time we played France. D'Arcy will have to be pushed out to the wing. Considering Kidney won't put Wallace on the pitch no matter what is happening, what is the sense in having him on the bench? Trimble provides far better injury cover as all of the back 3 have significant centre experience.

If Ireland adopt the same gameplan as they played against Italy we are going to get hammered. Isolated players running off static ball will be like a godsend for the French backrow (and that's before we take the litany of errors into account). We'll concede turnover ball and France will kill us on that. I can see Ireland having the lion's share of possession but making little ground for a lot of effort before eventually coughing up the ball through a handling error or an isolated runner with such frequency that France get the majority of the scores.

little173

Thanks Thomond. I think the assesment is a fair one, the key really is cutting out the errors, because not only does it lose both possesion, momentum and likely territory but it usually results in a scrum which is not good news for us.

The high intensity off loading and recycling game which suits us works when the forwards are making hard yards and breaking the gain line so this is important and if the stats from the Scotland game are in part to be replicated then there will be chances. So in this regard patience and being clinical are crucial, any top team gets a few chances a game but the ability to convert those will make the difference.

It is also the first proper game in the new LR and should have a good atmosphere for as long as Ireland are in it. Head says France by 7, but am hopeful!

Monty Burnz

Absolutely the most conservative selection he could have made. D Wallace has been an all-time great, but I haven't seen him have a good game by his previous standards for a long time. He went missing against Italy. And what's the point of having someone who's supposed to be a strong scrummager and not starting him against the best scrum in the competition? Especially since our scrum didn't stand up too well against Italy.

Bizzare, 'no risk' selections that will get us nowhere I feel.

toomevara

France by 15-20...mind you I'll never be happier to eat me hat if I've gotten it wrong.

BoarHunter

Well if we can do as well and as dramatic for the first ever 6 N in the Aviva than what we did for the first ever rugby match in Croker i sign straight away

mayordenis

Jaysus another head in Aix en provence - where you watchin this one?

keano_afc

Why put Trimble through such a fitness test if there was no intention of playing him? Bizarre.

thomond2006

mayordenis wrote: »

Jaysus another head in Aix en provence - where you watchin this one?

Likely The Wohoo!

Ciaran-Irl

keano_afc wrote: »

Why put Trimble through such a fitness test if there was no intention of playing him? Bizarre.

http://twitter.com/#!/andrew_trimble/status/35343192467443712

I really can't understand how they have both of Wallace and ROG on the bench. Trimble should really be there. All three outside backs can cover centre, but there is no cover for the outside backs. D'Arcy is not a serious option for the win.

SSK

Excellent preview OP and your optimism is to be admired

Just a couple of points:

- The inclusion of Paddy Wallace on the bench is very strange. Clearly Wallace doesn't offer cover for the back 3 and is only there to offer an option at centre. If this is the case then why on earth wasn't he brought on to replace one of our 2 worst performers in Italy, in his specialist position. If Kidney does not trust him to play at 12 then he shouldn't be there at all.

- If Trimble is fit he should be playing instead of McFadden or Earls. He's a gamebreaker with out and out speed and without Bowe we looked pedestrian at best in the back 3 against Italy.

- We really need a massive game from POC in order to win on Sunday. He's our pack leader and has had a couple of games to get back up to speed. If POC plays well and we get some sort of parity in the scrum we should be able to keep the score down, which is vital because I don't see this Irish team (under current tactics) winning any game where the opposition put up a score.

- Ireland's scrum half options are soooo underwhelming that I can't even get worked up about the selection of TOL

Final verdict: Ireland by a point in a close scrappy game, or France to put up 30 before Ireland release the shackles and score a couple of tries to make the scoreline respectable. Here's hoping its the former :cool:

Jack Sheehan

Im going to go with lots of mistakes. Unforced errors making us all question our sanity. France by a decent amount, maybe 15-20. I've never wanted to be wrong more.

tolosenc

France by 15-20. 1 effing change after that diabolical performance in Italy? See my sig...

BoarHunter

I don't know why Ireland couldn't fancy their chances : they could play a slow tempo pick n Go game that they excel at ( munster style ). France did show some weakness in the ruck zones.

The only thing they need to stick in their head is to stop getting rid of the ball with the boot. I have seen ireland doing that year over year.
Even in 2009 when they beat France they kicked the ball back to french hands and were super lucky to get away with it

If they keep the ball, don't make hand mistakes, slow down the game they have good chances. If the rain comes then it will even be better for Ireland.

If Ireland try to play their Leinster back combinations they will lose as they will be punished/countered . They tried that against Italy and didn't make much ground ...that was very lateral.

phog

tolosenc wrote: »

France by 15-20. 1 effing change after that diabolical performance in Italy? See my sig...

Not sure I'd drop O'Driscoll or Darcy after such a poor performance, they (hopefully) will never be as bad again.

BoarHunter

phog wrote: »

Not sure I'd drop O'Driscoll or Darcy after such a poor performance, they (hopefully) will never be as bad again.

O'Driscoll is the only player who creates opportunities for Ireland. Would be very disappointing to drop him. Yes he made a bad pass .... this happens.

phog

BoarHunter wrote: »

O'Driscoll is the only player who creates opportunities for Ireland. Would be very disappointing to drop him. Yes he made a bad pass .... this happens.

+ 1

tolosenc

phog wrote: »

Not sure I'd drop O'Driscoll or Darcy after such a poor performance, they (hopefully) will never be as bad again.

Did I suggest dropping them?

I was more on about the like of Healy, POC, Wallace and TOL. They were all rubbish against Italy and not the sort of rubbish that can be attributed to having a bad day.

Healy's scrummaging still needs a lot of work, POC needs to be fit, Wallace needs to learn how to scrummage, and TOL needs to learn how to play rugby.

padser

I understand that kidney values stability and i don't have a problem with as many of the selections as some people here but a few stand out as just awful.

1) Tol. I'm not a Redden fan but for the life of me I can't understand the lack of stringer. He is superior to tol in almost everything bar defence and sniping. On defence, Ireland played (and played well) with himself and rog for years, neither of whom could defend to save their lives. Surely we can afford to have one of them still on the pitch.

2) p Wallace. It's been done to death - but having him on the bench makes no sense. Can we not at least learn from our mistakes?

3) leamy on the bench. Iv two problems, firstly he shouldnt have played last week (ditto doc, but he did enough to retain his place) and he did nothing last week to suggest he should be in the squad this week). Secondly if heaslip goes off (likely given he hasn't played in 1 month) then we have the same backrow that was so bad against Italy.

Everything else I can live with (I thought the front row did well enough and were badly reffed, doc did enough to retain his place, would prefer Jennings t Wallace but jennings is untested at international level, dray had one bad game, wingers did fine).

I expect France to win by 15 to 20 - obviously kidney will be around to the wc. I really really hope he learns from mistakes (that's what bothers me so much about Wallace on the bench - he is repeating the exact same mistake again 1 year on when we have genuine options in Trimble and Duffy)

CouchSmart

phog wrote: »

Not sure I'd drop O'Driscoll or Darcy after such a poor performance, they (hopefully) will never be as bad again.

Ye exactly, should be looking at consistently bad performers like Wallace and O'Leary.

trackguy

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

http://twitter.com/#!/andrew_trimble/status/35343192467443712

He has a right to feel very hard done by. He should be on the bench

anonymous_joe

Tomás O'Leary. Sigh.

My opinion of him from the summer hasn't changed.

trackguy

Apologies if this has been posted already

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/2011/0209/kidneyd.html

Brenireland

sub bench has no life what so ever,strings sould be their...fml

irishbucsfan

I think we could see a very spirited performance from Ireland. I'd like to think we can beat anyone at home. The selection may not be perfect, but we have some top quality players on this team. The return of Heaslip can not be underestimated.

If our scrum holds up, I think we can push France. We'll have to defend like demons though.

Quint2010

Sorry but for the life of me I cannot see where all the optimism is coming from. We have a problem in all 3 rows of the scrum which Kidney refuses to rectify and our scrum half is woefully out of form. Maybe Irleand need to lose this match (heavily) for the correct players to be finally picked. This is a french team which looks really up for the year that lies ahead. Ireland are a team lacking in confidence and Kidneys assertion that he "hopes we will play to our potential" on sunday says it all. How about "expect" rather than "hope" Deccie??

France by 7. At least.

Leslie91

Kidney is turning into Eddie O'Sullivan.

TOL should be dropped altogether he has not played well for ages. I'd have Stringer starting and Reddan on bench.

I'd have Jennings on bench instead of Leamy. Wallace needs a big one to show us he still has something left.

Like many I would have Trimble on the bench over Wallace. In fact there are arguments for playing Trimble over either Earls or McFadden. Were it to be in Paris this move would have to be made.

Happy that the front row get another go, want to see Cronin earliesh though. This might have been the game for Leo too.

SSK

trackguy wrote: »

Apologies if this has been posted already

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/2011/0209/kidneyd.html

Very sceptical as to what this will actually mean.

Look at Leinster this year, they've clearly been playing to a set plan all year and stuck with it even when they lost a couple of games early on. It's not all out attack but its as close as it gets without losing any the set structure.

There's no evidence of any such structure to the Irish game plan. I mean we looked to go wide a lot against Italy without any real authority or momentum and our offloading game was non-existant. Try the same against France and the result will not be pretty.

part time punk

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2011/0209/1224289394074.html

Only had a quick look at the above link earlier where Reddan is named in the team, thought to myself Heaslip back and change of scrum-half, all good. Must have missed the bit in the text where it mentioned only one change. Disappointed, but not surpised, to see I was wrong about scrum-half.
Agree about Trimble - why bother with all the rigmarole about his fitness if he's not even in the squad. Personally I'd have Wallace and Trimble on the bench (no ROG) but I know I'm alone in this.

seanin4711

DK is EOS very conservative selection and not blooding enough players for my liking!
We are going to get ripped up as normal,france score 2-3 gifted tries and Ireland come back in the second half to make it respectable!

Its as plain as day!

Quint2010

part time punk wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2011/0209/1224289394074.html

Only had a quick look at the above link earlier where Reddan is named in the team, thought to myself Heaslip back and change of scrum-half, all good. Must have missed the bit in the text where it mentioned only one change. Disappointed, but not surpised, to see I was wrong about scrum-half.
Agree about Trimble - why bother with all the rigmarole about his fitness if he's not even in the squad. Personally I'd have Wallace and Trimble on the bench (no ROG) but I know I'm alone in this.

So Greg Feek is now working with the irish set up is he? A good move by Deccie. He's done wonders with the Leinster scrum..

CouchSmart

Quint2010 wrote: »

So Greg Feek is now working with the irish set up is he? A good move by Deccie. He's done wonders with the Leinster scrum..

Been working with the Irish set-up since autumn.

Quint2010

CouchSmart wrote: »

Been working with the Irish set-up since autumn.

Has he? Thought he was with Leinster only. So whats Gert Small been doing all this time then? No mention of Feek on the Irish Backroom team. He has definately been working with Leinster.

phog

tolosenc wrote: »

Did I suggest dropping them?

tolosenc wrote: »

France by 15-20. 1 effing change after that diabolical performance in Italy? See my sig...

In my view complaining of only one change is the same as looking for players to be dropped.

phog

Quint2010 wrote: »

Has he? Thought he was with Leinster only. So whats Gert Small been doing all this time then? No mention of Feek on the Irish Backroom team. I has definately been working with Leinster.

Feek is the scrum specialist and Smal is the forwards coach

thomond2006

trackguy wrote: »

Apologies if this has been posted already

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/2011/0209/kidneyd.html

Meh all PR speak tbh....

maddness

Leslie91 wrote: »

Kidney is turning into Eddie O'Sullivan.

TOL should be dropped altogether he has not played well for ages. I'd have Stringer starting and Reddan on bench.

I'd have Jennings on bench instead of Leamy. Wallace needs a big one to show us he still has something left.

Like many I would have Trimble on the bench over Wallace. In fact there are arguments for playing Trimble over either Earls or McFadden. Were it to be in Paris this move would have to be made.

Happy that the front row get another go, want to see Cronin earliesh though. This might have been the game for Leo too.

I totally agree with all you have said.
Another problem is Deccie not using the bench when needed.

I hate to say it but I reckon France by a lot.

Funkie

It's very hard to know, ireland could likely sneak it, or france run away with it...

trackguy

thomond2006 wrote: »

Meh all PR speak tbh....

There'll never be much real insight from a Kidney interview/ conference.

We can go by his selection - he is a coach torn between experimentation and tradition. He can't follow tradition alone anymore and can;t bring himself to embrace the new laws and new players.

He is falling firmly between the two without reaping much benefit.

JRant

Ah jaysus, I've had my ticket for this one a while now and i've been looking forward to for weeks. Thanks Deccie for ruining my bloody week.
The crazy lievremont gets his team selection spot on (as usual against us) and Deccie decides to give us this.
My prediction is that the France will hammer us for 60 mins, lievremont will empty the bench, we'll make a last gasp effort to get back into it, lose by 7 and Deccie will tell us were "getting" there. Although where 'there' is beyond me and a lot of Irish rugby fans.:mad: