Match Preview & Thread: FRA vs SCOT, Stade de France, Sat 16 Mar, 8:00pm

Swiwi

France: 15 Yoann Huget, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Maxime Médard, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Antonie Claassen, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo.

Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Luc Ducalcon, 19 Christophe Samson, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Florian Fritz or Gael Fickou.

Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Sean Lamont, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Greig Laidlaw, 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Ryan Grant.

Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Moray Low, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Ruaridh Jackson, 23 Max Evans.

Many learned experts, former players, newspapers columnists, the man on the street, and even Jacothelad’s jar of peanut butter* picked France to feature at the business end of the 6N. Which just goes to show that neither wise men nor breakfast spreads can ever predict which French team will turn up to play.

All logic had pointed to a decent showing from France, following on from their impressive Autumn internationals. Instead PSA has gifted a chapter on how not to select a team or use a bench to the book on modern rugby strategy. From the moment the NH’s premier 12 lined up on the wing to the persistence with anything-but-steady Freddie, PSA has given a tour de force in making a sow’s ear from a silk purse.

Which is all rather disappointing, as there’s nothing like a bit of Gallic flair to spice up the 6N, and provide a few "incroyable", "magnifique", "formidable" essais to try of the tournament.

Scotland on the other hand is doing a bit better than expected, which basically means they haven’t been entirely crap. In fact they have generally used their limited resources fairly well, although far far too many up-and-unders for my liking, and not enough pill to Visser, Hogg, and McMaitland. If you’re going to use those tactics you need Fourie du Preez, Bryan Habana, and the rugby law book circa 2007. Nevertheless, with wins already over Italy & Ireland they have avoided the wooden spoon, and victory over France would be a satisfying way to end the tournament.

Looking at the teams this week, and PSA has stayed true to form with FM once again starting at 10. You can lead a horse to water… Let’s at least hope for France that Parra gets the goal kicking duties. France has world class players in Fofana, Picamoles and Domingo, although I’m disappointed to see Nyanga back on the bench.

Grant Gilchrist gets a chance to start in place of the injured Ritchie Gray (who seems to be a bit like marmite on boards.ie, either you love him or you don’t), while this may be the last major chance for the likes of Hogg, Beattie and Brown to impress Warren G.

Reasons to watch this match

1) Nigel Owens is the ref
2) You’re stuck in hospital, and there’s nothing else to do
3) You are desperate to know if France can break their worst 6N record since 1927

Prediction: France surely SURELY cannot lose another game at home, and I predict a single-figure victory. If France loses, I reckon that come Monday, the new patron of Scotland will be Saint André...

*http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=83523438

Pudsy33

I can't read the writing?

pickarooney

8PM during a serious cold snap? Would not be surprised if this was called off.

Zzippy

What's with the text colour? And who in the name of God eats peanut butter with their breakfast??? :eek:

Teferi

I can read the text just fine. I'm on a desktop though. Are you lot on tablets?

Pudsy33

I'm on a laptop, itmight be the boards skin I'm using

Swiwi

It looks ok to me but I will see what went wrong when I get home. If its pink text or something bizarre I apologise!

.ak

I think it's because you've formatted it black, so people with the black boards skin probably can't read it.

Zzippy

Teferi wrote: »

I can read the text just fine. I'm on a desktop though. Are you lot on tablets?

I'm on a desktop, using the black background skin, and the text is coming up dark grey, impossible to read against the background...

Swiwi

.ak wrote: »

I think it's because you've formatted it black, so people with the black boards skin probably can't read it.

Wasn't intentional! With your superman mod powers, feel free to fix it!

justsomebloke

Swiwi wrote: »

Wasn't intentional! With your superman mod powers, feel free to fix it!

You f****** little b******, rather then do the easy option of doing ONE colour change for the whole piece tou added 48 individual ones!!!!!!:D

I have edited back to normal now

Swiwi

I think I have fixed it! And here I was sniggering at Podge's technical difficulties...

Swiwi

justsomebloke wrote: »

You f****** little b******, rather then do the easy option of doing ONE colour change for the whole piece tou added 48 individual ones!!!!!!:D

I have edited back to normal now

Blame frickin Firefox, on the sly, at work.

Chrome all the way!

Swiwi

I sense this match is already cursed. As Pickarooney said, maybe we're headed for another cancellation just before the match kicks off. I've been known to have peanut butter on toast for breakfast, and it ain't bad. Maybe it's a NZ thing...

thomond2006

Comfortable win for France I reckon, although that weather report doesn't sound good.

Slightly off topic but has there been any mention of nominations for 6N Player of the Tournament yet? Normally they're announced after Round 4. Picamoles has to be a standout candidate, Parisse missed a game which might hinder his hopes.

Swiwi

thomond2006 wrote: »

Comfortable win for France I reckon, although that weather report doesn't sound good.

Slightly off topic but has there been any mention of nominations for 6N Player of the Tournament yet? Normally they're announced after Round 4. Picamoles has to be a standout candidate, Parisse missed a game which might hinder his hopes.

Picamoles, Parisse, Halfpenny, Farrell, SOB, Robshaw would be in the mix for me so far. Suspect Farrell won't get much support on this forum (!) but England looked poorer with Flood last week.

Tox56

Swiwi wrote: »

Picamoles, Parisse, Halfpenny, Farrell, SOB, Robshaw would be in the mix for me so far. Suspect Farrell won't get much support on this forum (!) but England looked poorer with Flood last week.

I suspect it will be Halfpenny if Wales win and Robshaw if England win. As excellent as Parisse has been, if Ireland win it's hard to give it to a player who is part of a team with only 1 win all tournament... Mind you he would be in with a shout if Italy do win and he has a stormer

totallegend

Fritz confirmed as out, Fofana mk II Gael Fickou could make his debut from the bench.

molloyjh

totallegend wrote: »

Fritz confirmed as out, Fofana mk II Gael Fickou could make his debut from the bench.

He was pretty unspectacular for the U20s last week tbh.

.ak

molloyjh wrote: »

He was pretty unspectacular for the U20s last week tbh.

Yeah, no doubt, but he's got bags of raw talent. Could well imagine him forging an centre pairing with Fofana over the next few years, could be an exciting duo.

Pudsy33

Totally meaningless, but could be entertaining. France will want to end well considering they've had a car crash of a tournament so far.

Amprodude

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Totally meaningless, but could be entertaining. France will want to end well considering they've had a car crash of a tournament so far.

Hopefully our celtic brothers will sort the French for us but unlikely. They might keep score down for us though.

ThisRegard

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Totally meaningless,

A good result for France leaves us at the very bottom.

Taco Corp

do scotland travel with their own bagpiper? maybe ireland should travel with an uilleann piper

thomond2006

bump

thomond2006

That kick from Medard, as bad as it gets!

ednwireland

nobody watching then

whats with the pitches this year

jamiedav2011

Haven't been on this thread, but the idea of McGuirk calling for ROG to be risen from his Cork sitting room is surely one of the most ridiculous few moments in Irish rugby history?

Please, put our management and most of our so called 'analysis' team out to pasture.

bnt

ednwireland wrote: »

whats with the pitches this year

Not the same everywhere. Stade de France has no underpitch heating, and the pitch may have been damaged by freezing.

errlloyd

Unreal kick, almost beautiful.

leakyboots

Unbelievable skill from Vincent Clerc there

P_1

I didn't realise that they had moved the ploughing championships to the Stade de France this year :pac:

Taco Corp

french don't seem to care too much. some terrible tackling

Artful_Badger

How come it was a French drop out when Huget kicked it out ?

errlloyd

Artful_Badger wrote: »

How come it was a French drop out when Huget kicked it out ?

Because it was a scottish kick that put it into the goal area.

spank_inferno

Scots are playing a lovely controlled game.

Thats not to say it lacks skill. considering the conditions they are showing terrific skill in executing their plan so well.

iwasonbwh

leakyboots wrote: »

Unbelievable skill from Vincent Clerc there

Chris Patterson loves his tekkers

thomond2006

Scots doing what needs to be done. Hogg is simply electric, could he be the fastest player in the NH?

France are abject, it's depressing to see some class players drowning in this overall malaise.

Judgement Day

Looked at Scotland to win @ 5/1 before this game but stayed away. Dreadful muck from the French but Scots are well up for it.

Pudsy33

Parra off at half time, Michilack still on. The French really are a parody of themselves.

iroced

A new word needs to be created to describe our performance in this 6N.

I'm just words-less of what I'm witnessing ... :eek:

Artful_Badger

Michelak should be gone, several punches thrown.

leakyboots

Very cowardly from Freddie, he can expect a citing, running up and punching a player from behind

matthew8

Didn't see the punches and have only been watching since the 20th minute, but Freddy's been decent tonight.

ScissorPaperRock

What's the score?

matthew8

ScissorPaperRoc wrote: »

What's the score?

6-6.

leakyboots

6-6, 53 mins. Frnch penalty in front of posts

duckysauce

9-6 france

Pudsy33

Flaky Freddie is incredibly entertaining

matthew8

How France aren't winning is beyond me.

errlloyd

Debaty = Keith earls