France vs Italy; taking ones mind of Cardiff.

Losty Dublin

Live from Rome. KO at 1:30PM. Live TV from 1:20PM on RTE 2 and 12:30PM on ITV, UTV and STV.

I Replacements: D'Apice, Panico, Chistolini, Biagi, Mbanda, Bronzini, Benvenuti, Sperandio.

F Replacements: Tolofua, Atonio, Ben Arous, Jedrasiak, Le Roux, Dupont, Trinh-Duc, Huget.


Preview After their recent ruckless game in HQ, Conor O'Shea's Italy make three changes to the side that lost to England. Leonardo Ghiraldini comes in for Ornel Gega at hooker with Carlo Canna coming in for the injured Tommaso Allan at fly-half while Angelo Esposito returns into the 3/4 line in place of Guilio Bisegni, who is suffering from fatigue. So much for pasta being an energy food.

The underachieving France make four switches to that which lost in Dublin. Brice Dulin's returns to do his impression of a full-back (Pretty much like what Rob Kearney did in Cardiff :pac: ) with Virimi Vakatawa doing likewise on the wing. There is a debut for flanker Fabien Sanconnie and second row Julien le Devedec comes in as well.

I'm in two minds over this one. France are not in a good place, so much so that the cliche about not knowing which team they will send is now a question of their side being good or bad but if they are bad or worse. Italy successfully ruptured England's game plan enough to stop what was touted by the bookies as a 50 point game into one that finished with a more respectable score line.

This could well be like the girl with the little little curl. France are no England while Italy can play like they aren't Italy; however both teams can both flatter to deceive and deceive to flatter. Lets hope both teams will be good, will be very very good and not be bad, nor be horrid. I'll go with France by 29-17.

Johngoose

Will Italy get their asses handed to them?

kuang1

Nice and neat losty.
I think your scoreline prediction is about right. Italy could be in the game for 60 minutes. They won't fear France that's for sure.

Btw kick off is 2.30 our time isn't it?

pickarooney

kuang1 wrote: »

Nice and neat losty.
I think your scoreline prediction is about right. Italy could be in the game for 60 minutes. They won't fear France that's for sure.

Btw kick off is 2.30 our time isn't it?

No, 2.30 CET

kuang1

pickarooney wrote: »

No, 2.30 CET

Yes you're right. Thanks for that. I would've missed the 1st half otherwise!

Now to reschedule the day...

vienne86

What a start by Italy - lovely try for Parisse!

razorblunt

That walkway to the pitch is gas, you'd come out of the dressing room like madmen, only to have to walk down the steps on your tiptoes in case you fall.

ScrubsfanChris

Great try after patient build up. The easy-ish conversion missed though, same old Italy there.

DDC1990

Unreal pass from Parisse.

Italy Butchered a try there though!

vienne86

France look either asleep or hungover.

wp_rathead

The women's game and opening quarter to this game have been entertaining, and there is still 2.75 matches to go

razorblunt

Jeez, touch rugby try there.

ScrubsfanChris

And that was Italy of old. Completely aimless kick and no interest from the chasers.

vienne86

Dreadful defence there from Italy......France able to run around whatever way they want. Italy devoid of tackles. Easy try.

razorblunt

Steyn going well again for Italy, at least going forward, tackling is a bit suspect.

DDC1990

Did the ref get that wrong?

Where was the ruck formed?

vienne86

Shocking match this - standard of rugby is poor. No one seems to care.

bilston

DDC1990 wrote: »

Did the ref get that wrong?

Where was the ruck formed?

I think Parisse touched one of the French players and then let go...I'm assuming that constitues a ruck, but in all honesty after 30 years of playing the sport I'm not 100% sure.

ScrubsfanChris

Italy have made 63 tackles and missed 30. Sweet Jesus

irishbucsfan

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

Italy have made 63 tackles and missed 30. Sweet Jesus

It's both an awful game and a great game.

irishbucsfan

Italy have 31 missed tackles to France's 3 according to ITV commentators. Mad statistic

razorblunt

Referee indicates penalty, Fickou kicks the ball away.
Ref doesn't do anything, come on.

razorblunt

Canna trying to get the conversion off quickly here.

Stheno

26-11 to France, tmo review for a possible Italy try, looks held up to me.

Itssoeasy

It must be reassuring to have Nigel Owens as a touch judge for a ref.

wp_rathead

razorblunt wrote: »

Referee indicates penalty, Fickou kicks the ball away.
Ref doesn't do anything, come on.

Ya, he seems a good ref tbf but wish they'd come down harder on that stuff - never see penalty brought forward 10m anymore

vienne86

Fourth try at last for France.

ScrubsfanChris

Tackle success rate of just 51% for Italy. There's better stats from the underage teams that play at half time.

Stheno

That was desperate.

Hoping the Eng/Scot match is a cracker.

Neil3030

If you miss 51 tackles and make 98, your tackle success rate is 65%.

Still ****e, but not 50%

irishbucsfan

How on earth do you fix a team that misses 51 tackles...

ScrubsfanChris

Neil3030 wrote: »

If you miss 51 tackles and make 98, your tackle success rate is 65%.

Still ****e, but not 50%

Blame Ben Cay, just quoting him