France vs Italy, Six Nations, Sat 4 Feb 2:30pm; Pre/During/Post Match Thread

France:
15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurelien Rougerie, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Julien Malzieu, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Dimitri Yachvili,
8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Vincent Debaty.

Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Yoann Maestri, 19 Imanol Harinordoquy, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Maxime Mermoz.

Italy:
15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Edoardo Gori,
8 Sergio Parisse (c) 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Cornelius van Zyl, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.

Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Lorenzo Cittadini, 18 Marco Bortolami, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Fabio Semenzato, 21 Tobias Botes, 22 Gonzalo Canale.

Date: Saturday, February 4
Venue: Stade de France, St. Denis (Paris)
Weather: Sunny. Daytime high -1°C
Kick-off: 15.30 (14.30 GMT)
Referee: Nigel Owens

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3820_7477423,00.html

France will be out to hockey Italy after the embarrassment they suffered in Rome last year. Italy typically get their asses handed to them in Stade de France, I can't see them being within 15 points of France. Parisse will have to be at his Superman best.



Wesley Fofana is one to watch, he's been excellent this season for Clermont. It's also great to see Malzieu back in favour.

I don't think it's a full strength French side, there's a lot of players on the bench that will probably start next week. It's an incredible bench though, serious impact to come on in the second half.

I think France will win this by 20-25 points, although I hope Italy put up a big showing and stop being the mismatch team in the competition.