Team for France

[Son of Mathonwy]

Yes, like I said, Biggar would be back regardless of whatever happened in the Italy game. That's a crippling blow to our hopes of playing in the "new style".

Happy to see Tipuric starting, but.... we are playing a six at seven and a seven at six?? This is really strange. Not a disaster but strange.

All in all, still a strong team. We can win this but would be much more confident with Patchell or Anscombe.

I think Gatland wants to keep it safe for the first 60 and then let someone like Anscombe loose in the last 20. That is probably as far as the new attacking game will go until Gatland moves on.

He made the point earlier about experience; Garland is going to stick with the tried and trusted other than for games where we should win handsomely.

Indeed, perhaps the backs will get the ball in the last 20 minutes.

[kk67]

But much like Launchbury,...where is the creativity and the passing offloads...?.

[Buggaluggs]

..its on the bench.

[kk67]

I don't want Patch' on the bench.

[Sourdust]

I'd have started with Patchell myself, but some of the Biggar comments make me despair. You'd think he'd never thrown a scoring pass. He's had one match so far, in which he never saw the ball. It may be true that he can't play Scarletball but we simply don't know yet.

[kk67]

I want to see the big bombers off both hands. That's where rugby is going.
Patch'.

[Saison]

Where is Biggar in terms of caps? Is this just making sure we can use him from next year? I think it's 60 caps and the WRU site has him on 61 but I thought I remembered hearing he's have to paly nearly every game to get to the threshold...?

[Son of Mathonwy]

Where is Biggar in terms of caps? Is this just making sure we can use him from next year? I think it's 60 caps and the WRU site has him on 61 but I thought I remembered hearing he's have to paly nearly every game to get to the threshold...?

You're probably thinking of Priestland - he's on 50.

Biggar has made the cut, on 61 now.

[Sourdust]

If you want to drop Biggar from the squad completely, then fair enough.

But we're supposedly developing a new squad and system, including three fly-halves. Patchell and Anscombe have both had a fair crack this year. Patchell has struggled, but shown enough promise to persevere with. Anscombe has already proved his doubters (including me) at least partially wrong. Biggar has had 60 (?) minutes, without the ball. We have no true picture of how he fits into the new style yet, so selecting him for this match - where we can reasonably expect better possession stats - makes sense. Personally I'd have chosen Patch with Dan on the bench, but I pretty much trust all three of them now.

[Son of Mathonwy]

If you want to drop Biggar from the squad completely, then fair enough.

But we're supposedly developing a new squad and system, including three fly-halves. Patchell and Anscombe have both had a fair crack this year. Patchell has struggled, but shown enough promise to persevere with. Anscombe has already proved his doubters (including me) at least partially wrong. Biggar has had 60 (?) minutes, without the ball. We have no true picture of how he fits into the new style yet, so selecting him for this match - where we can reasonably expect better possession stats - makes sense. Personally I'd have chosen Patch with Dan on the bench, but I pretty much trust all three of them now.

But it's not just test rugby. Biggar has never played that kind of rugby in his career, for Wales or the Ospreys (despite Sam Davies playing this style at the same time... so we can't say it was due to the coaches' instructions), whereas Patchell does. This gives us plenty of reason to doubt that Biggar can change his game.

I think it's a bit strong to say that Patchell has struggled. He had an excellent first game, shredding Scotland (who went on to beat England and France), and then had a tougher one against England - but was hardly the only Welsh player to have a tough time in that game.

Why drop Biggar from the squad entirely if he's still considered to be in the top three? It would be premature, even if the style doesn't suit him so well.

[Numbers]

Any predictions?

I reckon Wales by 10.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Tough to call. We could easily lose, but I'll say Wales by 4.

[Sandydragon]

Home advantage and a reasonably strong team should see us a score clear of a French team which is very one dimensional, even if that dimension can win them games.

Wales by 7 ish points.

[Graigwen]

It could go either way.

Ireland only just beat France .

[Sandydragon]

It could go either way.

Ireland only just beat France .

If our pack gets as badly done over as it did against Ireland and England for larg parts of the game then it will be a long 80 minutes.

[Sourdust]

But it's not just test rugby. Biggar has never played that kind of rugby in his career, for Wales or the Ospreys (despite Sam Davies playing this style at the same time... so we can't say it was due to the coaches' instructions), whereas Patchell does. This gives us plenty of reason to doubt that Biggar can change his game.

Well, I've been watching Biggar every week since he made Ospreys 1st team, and I've seen him play plenty of handling, attacking rugby. It's true to say it's not his strongest suit, and that he has flourished under a different style; but he can certainly do it. Whether he can do it as well as Patchell is another matter. Patchell certainly can't do what Biggar does, yet.

I think it's a bit strong to say that Patchell has struggled.

Perhaps we simply differ in our definition of the term. I said above that I would have picked Patchell for this match, because I think he's shown enough to be worth another go. But some of us suspected that this would be the tournament where he established himself as our first choice 10, and that clearly hasn't happened; if anything, Anscombe has overtaken him. The dice haven't fallen kindly for Patch, and I think it's fair to say he's struggled - though not without some success.

[wayneha50]

Might skip the first 60mins & turn on when we start to play some rugby. Hopefully we aren't too far behind by then - this French pack is huge, I don't fancy us kicking the ball to them for an hour & then relying on our defence to keep them out. They could be a few scores clear by then.

[webbyinjapan]

Did any of you watch the Ospreys v Saracens game? Bigger is a professional, top quality OH,,,, I am not so worried... I think I would have preferred Patchell there for the future,,, but,,,, lets wait and see,,,,

[wayneha50]

We didnt even get our 20 minutes of playing rugby. That Scotland game seems a lifetime ago.

[MrK]

We finished second...but that just shows how poor the rest are.

Poor game.

[Buggaluggs]

We were second best by a margin. Great defence, but France should have won that.

[kk67]

Ford and Patchell both dropped by conservative 'big is best' frontrow morons. The shame of it.
Not so much in Rhys's case.

More like 'don't pick the creatives, they're a liability'.