France for a starter

[normanski]

It isn’t going to be easy Friday night.

In recent years the results have been close but Wales find ways of coming out on top, except of course when the ref loses his watch!

I was cheered by the news so many key starters/finishers have come back from injury - in particular Hill and Beard who seem to be building a great rapport with AWJ in the boiler room.

Let’s hope Beard’s unbeaten record in the Wales jersey continues.

I’m hopeful for a good result with Wales edging it by a handful of points.

[Numbers]

I'm glad Teddy Thomas isn't playing, if we keep them scoreless or thereabouts for the first 20 we should win.

[normanski]

I'm glad Teddy Thomas isn't playing, if we keep them scoreless or thereabouts for the first 20 we should win.

There are rumours Basteraud isn’t even in the squad for Friday and his place has been taken by young N’Tmack.

[francoisfou]

I'm glad Teddy Thomas isn't playing, if we keep them scoreless or thereabouts for the first 20 we should win.

There are rumours Basteraud isn’t even in the squad for Friday and his place has been taken by young N’Tmack.

True! Romain Ntamack replaces him in the matchday squad (maybe in the starting XV!). You'll surely remember his dad, Emile (46 caps between 1994/2000)
Considering that I think that France have lost 8 of their last 11 matches, they won't exactly be overflowing with confidence. However, if like you, the players think they'll be in for an easy night, that will backfire on them.
There's plenty of talent in the French squad, notably half backs Antoine Dupont and Camille Lopez, but whether they can all gel together into a formidable team is another question.
Personally, I believe Wales will win by 8 points or so. Hope I'm proved wrong!

[francoisfou]

And here's the French team for Friday evening
15. Médard ; 14. Penaud, 13. Fofana, 12. Ntamack, 11. Huget ; (o) 10. Lopez, (m) 9. Parra ; 7. Iturria, 8. Picamoles, 6. Lauret ; 5. Willemse, 4. Vahaamahina ; 3. Atonio, 2. Guirado, 1. Poirot

Remplaçants : 16. Marchand, 17. Priso, 18. Bamba, 19. Lambey, 20. Alldritt, 21. Serin, 22. Fickou, 23. Doumayrou

So Brunel has gone for the Clermont pair of half-backs and scrum half Dupont is nowhere to be seen, with Serin as replacement scrum-half.
I'm a bit pissed off that the Saffer Willemse (who only got a French passport recently is there).
Watch out for replacement prop Bamba who was very prominent in last year's French U20 world cup winners.
Julien Marchand, hooker and young captain of Toulouse is also a terrific player.
My prediction hasn't changed.

[Numbers]

Wales: Liam Williams; George North, Jonathan Davies, Hadleigh Parkes, Josh Adams; Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Rob Evans, Ken Owens, Tomas Francis; Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones; Josh Navidi, Justin Tipuric, Ross Moriarty.

Reps: Elliot Dee, Wyn Jones, Samson Lee, Cory Hill, Aaron Wainwright, Gareth Davies, Dan Biggar, Owen Watkin.

[Renniks]

Really good 12,13,14,15… AWJ is obviously class
But it wouldn't surprise me if France win this

[normanski]

Really good 12,13,14,15… AWJ is obviously class
But it wouldn't surprise me if France win this

I have your fear as well but if we can silence the crowd in the first half through solid tackling and forcing them back on the gain line then we can nick this.

Defence in recent games has been our strong point and if we can prevent these talented French backs from going wide early then we stand a chance.

Hopefully we won’t start slowly - a feature we see often in the AIs and 6N.

An intriguing opener!

[Numbers]

Really good 12,13,14,15… AWJ is obviously class
But it wouldn't surprise me if France win this

I have your fear as well but if we can silence the crowd in the first half through solid tackling and forcing them back on the gain line then we can nick this.

Defence in recent games has been our strong point and if we can prevent these talented French backs from going wide early then we stand a chance.

Hopefully we won’t start slowly - a feature we see often in the AIs and 6N.

An intriguing opener!

I feel quite confident that we'll win this one, France's discipline is not good and our defence is very good, everyone said we would struggle against Scotland last year yet we easily beat them with a weakened side.

[francoisfou]

It is thought there'll only be 60,000 spectators in the Stade de France, so if 20,000 of your supporters fancy a weekend in Paris, they should be able to get tickets!!
The organisers are getting some stick over here for the 9 o'clock kick off on a Friday night. It's a working day and they say that supporters from the provinces (particularly the south west) won't have enough time to make the journey (for example, Paris is about 7 hours by road from Toulouse) and flights on a Friday afternoon are nearly always expensive. And they're right!

[Sandydragon]

On current form, we have to be favourites and our team is far more settled. The game will probably be close so a bad caller a mistake could lose it, and the French could have some unplayable moments. But if we can keep it structured and shut the crowd up then we can win this.

Always a bit nervous at the start of the 6Nations as we tend to start slowly.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Would prefer to see Amos instead of Adams - I'm not sure what Adams has done to be considered the better player. To be honest, much that I like Watkins, it would be better to have Amos in the 23 shirt.

Is Scott Williams injured? Would want him involved otherwise.

Other than that, a conservative but sensible selection. I'm confident we should win this (let's just hope we're wide awake and ready for action from the start).

[Sourdust]

I want to say that I have no idea what to expect from France. But that isn't true; I know what to expect (them to be shit) but I just don't believe it.

Call it Welsh Bipolarism or whatever. "We're underdogs but I fancy us" is just such a more mentally comfortable place than "We should probably win this, but..." If we hadn't had the gap since the autumn - and the bonfire of the regions' fortunes therein - I'd be relaxed to the point of complacency. As we stand... squeaky bum. Bah.

[morepork]

France are most consistently incredibly conservative of late, particularly with this tournament. They just select the biggest players they can and have them run directly at the opposition. It's painful to watch. I hope you totally do 'em.

[J Dory]

Is Anscombe the preferred Welsh 10 now or is someone out injured?

[Hooky]

France are most consistently incredibly conservative of late, particularly with this tournament. They just select the biggest players they can and have them run directly at the opposition. It's painful to watch. I hope you totally do 'em.

Well they haven’t this time, bastareud isn’t in the match day squad

[Graigwen]

It is going to be a good game.

We could easily lose this.

[Sandydragon]

I know we always start slowly, but feck
Me this is dire

[Hooky]

Fuck sake

[Zhivago]

On current form, we have to be favourites and our team is far more settled. The game will probably be close so a bad caller a mistake could lose it, and the French could have some unplayable moments. But if we can keep it structured and shut the crowd up then we can win this.

Always a bit nervous at the start of the 6Nations as we tend to start slowly.

Ain't that the truth.

[Sandydragon]

9’handling errors. This has been a dire 40 minutes. Utterly dire.

[bruce]

Well this is 5hit. Yank Anscombe bring Biggar on.

[Ross. S]

We look like we haven't seen a rugby ball since the AIs.49% played in the French 22 and not a single point!

[Buggaluggs]

Three quick converted tries and we're right back in it

[Sourdust]

It may only be half-time but this one's well gone.

Even if we magically dominate the next 40, France will get a couple of penalties and where are we going to find 23 points?

There's slow starts, and there's not starting at all. Well, let's just hope that come March we'll be saying, "If only it wasn't for that 1st half in Paris, eh?"