Ireland v France - 12.03.05

Downtime

France name thier side:

France coach Bernard Laporte has named his side to face Ireland in the crucial Six Nations clash at Lansdowne Road this weekend.

J Laharrague (Brive); C Heymans (Toulouse), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), L Valbon (Brive), C Dominici (Stade Francais); Y Delaigue (Castres), D Yachvili (Biarritz); S Marconnet (Stade Francais), S Bruno (Sale), N Mas (Perpignan), F Pelous (Toulouse, capt), J Thion (Biarritz), S Betsen (Biarritz), Y Nyanga (Beiers), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin).

Replacements: W Servat (Toulouse), P De Villiers (Stade Francais), P Pape (Bourgoin), G Lamboley (Toulouse), P Mignoni (Clermont), F Michalak (Toulouse), B Baby (Toulouse).


Still a formidable team. I feel confident though. Fingers crossed.

RuggieBear

that's a good team.....but not a great one

Nukem

Delaigue (Castres)@ 10 again we are looking good. Not nearly are good as Michalak,no spark.

On the flipside there goes another bloody chance in the Fantasy rugby league again.Have Michalak at 10

Trojan

Keep on leavin Michalak on the bench there Bernard, cheers

Jak

A strong team irrespective, but not the dream team from their 6 nations panel by any stretch.

Outside of 10, I'm just thankful that that animal Rougerie can't play either to be honest. He is going to make more and more of a name for himself.

JAK.

thejollyrodger

it said on the news that D'arcy wouldnt be fit. He wasnt 100%:(

RuggieBear

Geordan Murphy
Girvan Dempsey
Brian O'Driscoll
Kevin Maggs
Denis Hickie
Ronan O'Gara
Peter Stringer
Reggie Corrigan
Shane Byrne
John Hayes
Malcolm O'Kelly
Paul O'Connell
Simon Easterby
Johnny O'Connor
Anthony Foley

Replacements:

Frankie Sheahan
Marcus Horan
Donncha O'Callaghan
Eric Miller
Guy Easterby
David Humphreys
Gavin Duffy

thejollyrodger

Im worried about us up front in the pack. Arent the french very strong ? We might be getting a french lesson in rubgy on saturday:O

RuggieBear

thejollyrodger wrote:

Im worried about us up front in the pack. Arent the french very strong ? We might be getting a french lesson in rubgy on saturday:O

if the french front row is allowed to srummage we will be destroyed. they have murdered every front row in the competetion so far...but spreadbury might allow us parity in the scrum and i reckon we could be alright.

Trojan

Jak wrote:

A strong team irrespective, but not the dream team from their 6 nations panel by any stretch.

Outside of 10, I'm just thankful that that animal Rougerie can't play either to be honest. He is going to make more and more of a name for himself.

JAK.

Absolutely, his running through the Welsh reminds me of Lomu steamrollering Mike Cat in 95.

Beruthiel

it is imperative that we beat this french team, for more reasons than one!

Trojan

Regardless of jersey numbers, does this mean that Maggs will be on the outside?

Downtime

I'd say Maggs will go at 12 for the crash bang wallop effect and Dricco at 13.

RuggieBear

Trojan wrote:

Regardless of jersey numbers, does this mean that Maggs will be on the outside?

I bloody well hope not! :eek: he's an an inside centre playing outside for ulster while BOD is an outside centre playing inside for Ireland and Leinster.....

Trojan

Ruggie: Driccos been on the inside quite a bit, as recently as during much of the England game, or so I believe (really need to see a replay of that game). Remember the controversy about him playing at 12 and wearing 13?

spanner

i think darcy is ok to play, he played with leinster and seemed alright, although i didnt see the game. if he is fit he needs to be played,

i think the best way to beat the french is like the welch did, move the ball wide and try not let it on the ground, i think the likes of hickey, BOD and murphy will break the line, they have not let us down yet in both defence and attack. if the english had our backline it would of been a whitewash. i think we have the best backline in the northern hemisphere and possibly the world so we need to play to our strengths

Downtime

spanner wrote:

i think darcy is ok to play, he played with leinster and seemed alright, although i didnt see the game. if he is fit he needs to be played,

He wasn't even considered apparently.

Nukem

Very good picture of SCW looking at the irish train http://www.irishrugby.ie/newspage/58173.html looking at the irish to lead the Lions i expect.

Also the only way to stop Rougarie is: Demsey & Maggs on a Honda 50 with a shotgun
D'arcy out? Heard he had a good game last week. Maybe EOS doesnt want to risk him and hold off till the Welch match.
Scrum will be vital - first blood will dictate the scrums from there on.
Also would like to see Ireland challenge a bit more in the lineout - very little went on in the English game?
Think the irish backs are starting to show their class (defense is immense and on the attack the lines are beautiful) watched BODS try again. Hickie came from a mile off and Murphy was on his shoulder with BOD just waiting on the touch line, poetry in motion - bring on the French

punky bruster

D'arcy's definately out, his hamstring was said to be only at 95%

memphis

Bring on the Frogs I say, bring em on!

Should be a good auld game.

Nukem

IRELAND A:

(15) Bryn Cunnigham (Ulster – Dungannon)
(14) Tommy Bowe (Ulster – Belfast Harlequins)
(13) Kieran Lewis (Leinster – St. Mary's College)
(12) David Quinlan (Leinster – Blackrock College)
(11) Anthony Horgan (Munster – Cork Constitution)
(10) Paddy Wallace (Ulster – Ballymena)
(9) Kieran Campbell (Ulster – Dungannon)
(1) Ronan McCormack (Ulster – Buccaneers)
(2) Bernard Jackman - Captain(Connacht – Clontarf)
(3) Simon Best (Ulster – Belfast Harlequins)
(4) Matt McCullough (Ulster – Ballymena)
(5) Bob Casey (London Irish)
(6) Alan Quinlan (Munster – Shannon)
(7) Shane Jennings (Leinster – St. Mary's College)
(8) Roger Wilson (Ulster – Belfast Harlequins)

Replacements:

(16) Paul Shields (Ulster – Ballymena)
(17) Ray Hogan (Connacht – Galwegians)
(18) Ben Gissing (Leinster – Clontarf)
(19) David Wallace (Munster – Garryowen)
(20) Brian O'Riordan (Leinster – UCD)
(21) Paul Burke (Munster – Garryowen)
(22) Shaun Payne (Munster – Dolphin)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

[Jackass]

Hmmm...I have to say im very worried about this match. I think it's fair to say France will be more dominant up front, and the Irish pack will have to work very hard not to be blown away in the match...only if they can un-settle the french set piece enough can our pack get the upper hand...but i dont see that happening, which means our backline will have to take every chance it gets, and this is the weakest backline we've had in the 6n so far, and it lacks bite...Maggs and dempsey take the flow out of the type of game we want to play if you ask me, Eddie refuses to take the obvious step to compensate by switching murphy and dempsey around for a bit more flare and finishing out wide, so for me, the game will be won or lost on O'Gara's performance. He's had a poor 6N by his standards, and never really dominated his oppisite number, which he needs to do, and pin the French back in their own half, if he can do that, the French pack will be under pressure, and crack, if not, they'll role over us. O'Gara needs to produce his game of the season, i just hope he's up to it (His all round kicking game, both place and tactical will win it if it clicks )

spanner

we will definately need to change some of our tatics, its not going to be as easy as scotland to maul these guys all over the pitch. the french scrum is considered on of the strongest in the world so our guys are really going to have to work hard in that area. i think o gara cant keep kicking for the line all the time, we sometimes think our lineout is stronger than it is and paul o'connell by his standards has been quiet this tournment. this is what happened in the world cup and france showed us that it wasnt. france thrives on set pieces. its a shame we have a bit of a weaker back line but this is were we need to beat them. as wales showed if we can hold them in the pack and play away from their strengths it should be ours.

the good thing is that france dont like lawnsdowne road, we have won the last two games played in dublin and the one before that, the beat us by just a point and anyone lucky enough to have ticket need to make it uncomfortable for them.

GOWAN IRELAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nukem

Heard a few reports that Michalak the super sub isnt 100% fit so a bit of good news i hope,the guy is dangerous. Could just be a rouse by Laporte and all these mind games that are going on in rugby at the mo.