Match preview & thread: FRA vs IRE (Sat Feb 3, 1645)

Date: Saturday, February 3
Venue: Stade de France, Paris
Kick-off: 17:45 local (16:45 GMT)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Paul Williams (New Zealand)
TMO: Rowan Kitt (England)


FRANCE: 15 Geoffrey Palis, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Rémi Lamerat, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Virimi Vakatawa, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Kevin Gourdon, 7 Yacouba Camara, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina, 4 Arthur Iturria, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado (c), 1 Jefferson Poirot

Replacements: 16 Adrien Pelissié, 17 Dany Priso, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Paul Gabrillagues, 20 Marco Tauleigne, 21 Antoine Dupont, 22 Anthony Belleau, 23 Benjamin Fall


IRELAND: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 James Ryan, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy

Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 John Ryan, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Dan Leavy, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Fergus McFadden


The build-up to this week’s much anticipated opening round of the 6N and Ireland’s clash with les Tricolores has been dominated by a series of appalling puns from posters who really should know better.

Fortunately this poster steered well clear of such frivolities, and instead devoted himself to a detailed analysis of the respective starting XVs, their benches, and the physical and mental state of Monsieur Brunel and Herr Schmidt.

So without further ado, let’s have a look at those who will do battle - but hopefully not die more than figuratively - for their countries. Ireland come off the back of an eminently successful international autumn series, where they were expected to win, and did just that. With style. In fact the win over South Africa was something of a statement. Allowing for the loss to, and return from, injury, Joe Schmidt has stuck with the core of the players who did the Green shirt proud.

Notwithstanding Leinster provincial form, there is possibly a slight surprise in seeing Healy preferred to McGrath, and in a bold move J Ryan has been preferred to Devin Toner at lock. Please note that that is James Ryan and not John Ryan – there is bold and then there is just f*ck*n stupid. A fair amount of electronic print has been spilt on the forum debating the form of POM and Stander, but I 100% support their selection at this stage as their at times mediocre Munster showings have not so far translated into poor international offerings. If they keep performing for Ireland, Uncle Joe will not be too concerned about provincial form.

Turning to the backs, and for the first time ever (at least since I follow Ireland), there is a real feel of a NZ-style backline, with a power 12, who has more to his game than simply muscle, and some dashing outside backs: a rejuvenated Kearney, an impressive Earls in the last 18 months or so, and the up-and-coming highly talented Stockdale. A few rough edges on Jacob, yet, but he looks a keeper. All this, alloyed to the world class half-back pairing of Murray and Sexton. Off the Irish bench, I’m probably most intrigued to see what Leavy and Carberry can bring.

Turning to France, and on first viewing I’d say they have a strong midfield, an exciting openside (Camara), although from memory he might be more of a 6, and a solid front row. There are quite a few unknowns in this French side, not least their flyhalf, whom I’m guessing most haven’t heard of before, let alone see play. On their bench, Dany Priso has had a couple of decent games for La Rochelle - he brings some speedy impact a bit like Sean Cronin.

In terms of the game, I expect Ireland to be highly structured and well organised. The main question will be the ability to adapt if things don’t go as planned, which unfortunately often means Sexton limping off after 20 minutes or so after some courageous but ultimately injury-inducing tackle. Hopefully, he won’t be illegally targeted. The basics of the set-piece, highly organised defence etc are a given with Ireland these days, but it will be interesting to see how expansive Ireland’s play is, with the 6N retaining the bonus point into the foreseeable future.

France I expect to start with a degree of fire and brimstone, it sounds like the new coach is popular in the camp, and they do have some talented players. But talent alone rarely cuts it at top international level, and unless they have a degree of structure and and a plan to unlock Ireland’s defence, they will come up short.

Prediction: I expect this game to be fairly close for 50 to 60 minutes, but Ireland to pull away with 10 points or so to spare. No repeat of last year please, with an insipid first up defeat. Sláinte!