nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

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

swiwi_

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!

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Guy:Incognito

stephen_n wrote: »

Maybe French doctors just don’t take any risks with HIA’s. It was Owens who asked first though wasn’t it?

I don't think he did. I think he was told it was a hia and was very surprised so asked a couple of times to be 100%. He seemed a bit sceptical imo.

[Deleted User]

its_phil wrote: »

How many pints in are you?

Ok, well I'm alone in thinking France really put it up to us today then I guess. The pundits seem to agree that France delivered but I guess Ireland were terrible.

If they play like that England are going to seriously struggle and I hope they do. Not just for the tournament but it might help people appreciate this performance a bit more.

dilallio

Credit to France. They surprised most commentators by their discipline in the final quarter.
Saying that, its bloody brilliant to beat them with the final moment of the game. Sweet!

Rugbyf565

awec wrote: »

This is your last warning on this. If you make another post like:

- "people celebrating us losing"
- "you're not real fans"
- "disdain for a win"

you will be taking a break.

I encourage you to contribute more constructively rather than take sneaky digs at other posters.

That's unfair to say, he wasn't taking digs, he was simply encouraging more positivity, it's what we need to encourage our team.

[Deleted User]

Former Former wrote: »

I'd say you could accurately measure the age of a lot of guys posting here by their level of disdain for a win in Paris.

It was NEVER going to be easy. The weather didn't help.

Let's just enjoy it. The pitchforks will keep till tomorrow.

I completely agree.

chatticusfinch

If only the winner of that match got to host the RWC

My god though, Jonny Sexton is exceptional.

[Deleted User]

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I don't think he did. I think he was told it was a hia and was very surprised so asked a couple of times to be 100%. He seemed a bit skeptical imo.

He should be sceptical, France did the very same against Wales last year. Once off you have to give the benefit of the doubt, twice???

PhlegmyMoses

Heap of French lads in the pub I'm in and they are so happy with their lads effort. They should be they were excellent

stephen_n

Rugbyf565 wrote: »

That's unfair to say, he wasn't taking digs, he was simply encouraging more positivity, it's what we need to encourage our team.

The bits in bold are moderation, you can’t question that on the forum, only by pm.

beertons

Catching the end of the second half on TV3+1.

Brilliant cross field kick and the catch by Earls. Deadly.

munsterlegend

No matter who you are up against it's hard to win away from home in the six nations. We have struggled to beat Italy until the last 20 sometimes with infinitely better players.

France are a big physical team with dangerous individuals and we always find it hard to win there.

D14Rugby

Rugbyf565 wrote: »

Sexton scapegoat for this loss unfortunately

Reading this back it just goes to show how 2 minutes in a game can completely change how your performance is viewed.
This was posted just after France scored the try for the record

thebaz

Wow - the drama - I might be repeating myself anyway :-

Johnny really is an Irish superstar , the one player we can not lose ;

Rarely get favours from Owens, find his celebrity running commentary a bit irritating - just the ref game;

Grew up loving French rugby, find it sad that its reduced to such bosh rugby these days, and borderline cheating - I loved the way they played the game of old - off the cuff - horrible to watch these days.

its_phil

Deleted User wrote: »

Ok, well I'm alone in thinking France really put it up to us today then I guess. The pundits seem to agree that France delivered but I guess Ireland were terrible.

If they play like that England are going to seriously struggle and I hope they do. Not just for the tournament but it might help people appreciate this performance a bit more.

They had the top two inches today which is brilliant to see but overall quality was poor and they shouldn't have been allowed have a lead in added time.

PhlegmyMoses

I still think Nige was ****e today. Best ref in the world, but hated how he refded the breakdown tbh

Former Former

awec wrote: »

This is your last warning on this. If you make another post like:

- "people celebrating us losing"
- "you're not real fans"
- "disdain for a win"

you will be taking a break.

I encourage you to contribute more constructively rather than take sneaky digs at other posters.

To clarify.

This was an observation on how far we've come since I started going to games in the grim 90s. It wasn't a dig at younger posters.

It's great that we all have such high expectations but they need to be tempered with reality and we need to put things in context. France were never going to lie down and Brunel was always going to have a very well drilled team. Pissing rain for 80 minutes throws a lot of prep work out the window.

Maybe Joe has been his own worst enemy in raising expectations but he's now won 67% of the games he's played in Paris. Good Irish teams have played rubbish French teams before and come away with nothing. Eddie's Golden Generation? No wins. Kidneys Grand Slam unit? No wins.

Ban me for this if you like but you're misreading my post so I think I deserve to be heard.

mfceiling

What is the crack with the "false HIA" at the end?

Can it be reviewed after? If the player says he took a bang to the head is that the last word? If it shows on replay that contact took place nowhere near the head can he be held accountable?

NollagShona

That was fcuking epic! 41 phases!

irishbucsfan

Deleted User wrote: »

I disagree, I think you are under appreciating the performance by France by a long way. We were one dimensional but France did that to us to a certain degree. I expected France to fold early, they didn't at all.

We were very good in many aspects of our play. You will rarely see that level of composure at this level and on a stage like that.

We'll be better, but we also won't face as good.

This is an incredible sandbagging effort, to be fair. Extremely committed effort to sandbagging.

MayoSalmon

awec wrote:

That France used to be really good and Ireland didn't?

awec wrote:

What's the reason?

awec wrote:

We need to get over this small time mentality.

The reason being that when we arguably played the worst French team in their history we still needed a miracle to get us over the line.

Needed a hatrick from BOD 20 years ago aswell, the point being no matter what France team is put in front of us, in Paris we struggle.

Just the reality nothing small minded about it, it's a hard place for us to go always has been.

awec

Former Former wrote: »

To clarify.

This was an observation on how far we've come since I started going to games in the grim 90s. It wasn't a dig at younger posters.

It's great that we all have such high expectations but they need to be tempered with reality and we need to put things in context. France were never going to lie down and Brunel was always going to have a very well drilled team. Pissing rain for 80 minutes throws a lot of prep work out the window.

Maybe Joe has been his own worst enemy in raising expectations but he's now won 67% of the games he's played in Paris. Good Irish teams have played rubbish French teams before and come away with nothing. Eddie's Golden Generation? No wins. Kidneys Grand Slam unit? No wins.

Ban me for this if you like but you're misreading my post so I think I deserve to be heard.

More than happy to discuss this with you on PM, but don't discuss mod decisions on threads. You know the rules here.

Bridge93

Good defensively apart from the try. France excellent defensively too.

Both pretty poor in attack. We were cruising, it should never have come down to that but a win is a win and winning away is very difficult to do. We’ll need to add more in attack or we won’t be winning in London.

Some poor performances and some very positive ones.

A lot of crap will be posted so I’ll leave it at that. Serious bottle from Sexton at the end and accuracy to keep the ball alive for 40 phases in those conditions

The HIA stuff was farcical. France have history in this and I hope it’s investigated further. Using a protocol that’s in place to prevent horrendous long term injuries to basically cheat is disgusting

Owens was poor today in my view. Gets too caught up in his own interpretations of things instead of just refereeing by the rules. Very inconsistent too. One that stood out was Aki getting done for not rolling away in the first half then in that last passage of play one of the french lads was given nearly 10 seconds to move himself from the wrong side

eigrod

Haha (apologies if already posted)

https://twitter.com/ugomonye/status/959860914257309696

.ak

Ah jaysus me heart....

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/jameslowenz/status/959877104862158848

[Deleted User]

mfceiling wrote: »

What is the crack with the "false HIA" at the end?

Can it be reviewed after? If the player says he took a bang to the head is that the last word? If it shows on replay that contact took place nowhere near the head can he be held accountable?

I think we could tell from Owens' tone he wasn't happy. But he is put in a position where he is not entitled to do anything but what he did by the doctor.

However, the doctor is also put into a position where he is not entitled to do anything but what he did by the player.

I think there is nothing we can feasibly expect to be done to avoid these situations. Even though it sits like a bag of sick with me.

If the player says head, the doctor says hia, the ref says sub allowed. That rule cannot change imo. It is up to the players not to abuse it.

Squidgy Black

One dimensional in attack, but I think part of that was due to the French slowing the ball at the ruck at every opportunity, we never really had much build up with phases and had to resort to one out forward runs.

Good 6N debut for Aki and Ryan, solid carries and didn't get shown up in defence.

I think the criticism directed towards Stockdale is a bit much, it really wasn't a day for our back three as they didn't get much ball due to the conditions and the narrow style of play we resorted to.

Definitely a lot to improve on, possibly need to look at ways to play outside of the game plan if things aren't going as expected.

Glad to get the win today though, a loss would've really set us back.

BBDBB

Sorry lads, I can't post any more to this thread......I need a HIA.........*clutches knee and limps off into the living room

clsmooth

I think it’s fair to assume away wins will be hard to come by again this year after today and last years results. Great to get the win and a kick up the arse today. That’s what good teams do, they win when they should lose.

Tigerandahalf

What a finish to the game. Sexton can take a bow.

We should have lost that. The French missed an easy penalty after a poor error from Earls. The game should have been over then.

But the top teams always regain possession from their kickoff when the need is greatest and Ireland duely did it with Henderson taking a great catch.

The conditions were very poor and it was only when you got a closeup of the floodlights that you could see how the rain was coming down.

However I worry about our ability to create chances and for our back 3 to take on chances when they are there. Our play is too structured and ponderous at times. Grand if you want to win a game on penalties but we need to be scoring more tries. Can we win a WC playing this way - I don't think so.

France were very dogged but they gave away some incredibly stupid penalties with the 2nd row guy culpable on more than 1 occasion. They look like they have a quality LH on their hands and with Guirado and Slimani they have a solid unit. Guirado was superb today.

Great win as they are hard to come by in Paris. I spent my childhood days watching us getting pummeled in Paris but in fairness France played with great flair then.

Italy next up and we are building momentum. So who knows. That kick could be even more important yet.