Team for France

[normanski]

I know he's world class and one of your best players and all but... as human being - North really should retire from rugby. How many times has the guy been knocked out? He was out cold again.

He’s certainly had the stuffing knocked out of him in recent times. Probably his last appearance for Wales today. Sad but in his best interests especially with a baby due in a few weeks.

France deserved to win because they won the aerial battle and took their chances well.

A more experienced ref might have awarded Wales a penalty try for the deliberate knock forward and also the three five metre collapsed scrums.

Still it’s only a game.

Congratulations to France.

[Sandydragon]

The lack of penalty try and the interception were key moments. You could just see the scrum penalty coming and it allowed France to keep a two score lead until later in the game when we were getting desperate.

But we made too many mistakes. Again. The first french try was an unfortunate bounce but you felt the welsh players were all ball watching.

On the plus side I felt Parkes had a good game, and mostly so too did Tompkins. He was at fault for the interception but he did a lot of good stuff as well and should keep the shirt for the last two games. Halfpenny was solid in defence but seemed to run up blind alleys too often. Still not entirely sold on McNicholl either.

For a while I though that we had weathered the french storm and would gain a lead in the second half but the interception gave them some renewed energy at a time when we were dominating and that was that.

[Sourdust]

We lost all the coin-tosses, which is frustrating but can happen.

We also lost nearly all the close ref calls, which is more troubling, being at home. I could just about swallow not getting the pen try if we were in Paris but... hmm...

I think the final score is just about fair. France only actually constructed one try but they were all over us for half an hour and didn't collapse after that. We had some comical bad luck but also made plenty of errors. France the better side, but lucky to win. Wales second-best, but unlucky to lose. Pretty good watch for the neutral, I'd guess.

[paddy no 11]

Willemse should have been yellow no doubt and intercept was huge- that's the whole game there

[francoisfou]

Just about deserved that. I was worried defending the 4 point lead but it seems to me that the French can play the full 80 now instead of packing up after 60. Now for Murrayfield!

[paddy no 11]

Just about deserved that. I was worried defending the 4 point lead but it seems to me that the French can play the full 80 now instead of packing up after 60. Now for Murrayfield!

What was her finishing backline couldn't follow the subs

[paddy no 11]

Also that was a super game of rugby and agree on George north for his own safety needs to give up international rugby, good luck to him

[morepork]

That game was mean as. Two teams going at it for the full 80. The young Welsh 13 has a big future, he was relentlessly positive. I’m loving how the French are playing off a demon 9.

[bruce]

I'm generally not one for having a go at the ref, but even as (or maybe because) I had a number of drinks in me, I thought the ref was feckin awful. The French were consistently off side throughout the game, most notably french 13 against Owens, and potentially 2 penalty tries not given.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Lots of Welsh mistakes still, and this France is not so forgiving. Still managed to score a fair amount of points (and that's before the one or two penalty tries we should have had). Killed by the lack of penalty tries.

France are much improved and look good for the grand slam now.

But at least there is a lot of room for the Welsh to tighten things up ... That's a positive (I think).

[paddy no 11]

Don't think ye deserved a penalty try for the scrum, the 3rd one mostly went sideways and Dupont was in the clear so he had to give a penalty. but definitely for wilemse

[bruce]

Off topic, I liked the green socks..

[Sandydragon]

Don't think ye deserved a penalty try for the scrum, the 3rd one mostly went sideways and Dupont was in the clear so he had to give a penalty. but definitely for wilemse

Yeah,
None of the scrums were penalty tries.
But the slap down definitely was.

[Mr Mwenda]

Stands to reason that the missing man would've been around the ruck so that must be where the space is?

Sound logic.

Anything else would be tantamount to accusing the french of dishonesty. I'm sure no true rugby player would be so base as to try to fill in for a team mate rightfully ejected from the game.

[Sandydragon]

That game was mean as. Two teams going at it for the full 80. The young Welsh 13 has a big future, he was relentlessly positive. I’m loving how the French are playing off a demon 9.

Lots of people not so sure about him. Whilst not as defensively sound as JD2, he has a good range of skills and wants to play rugby. I’m pleased he was selected today and I think he will improve.

[Spiffy]

That game was mean as. Two teams going at it for the full 80. The young Welsh 13 has a big future, he was relentlessly positive. I’m loving how the French are playing off a demon 9.

Lots of people not so sure about him. Whilst not as defensively sound as JD2, he has a good range of skills and wants to play rugby. I’m pleased he was selected today and I think he will improve.

Yes. Fair play to Tompkins. He has gas, footwork, dog, is attack-orientated and for a smallish man is quite powerful. OK, he made a few mistakes (like many of his team mates) but looks a good long term bet for the Welsh 13 shirt. He does bring some zip to the midfield and is a good partner for the hard running Parkes.

[tigran]

In France too peuple find things to say about the ref.. the try by Biggar held by the hand of Bouthier for example...

Other stuffs too...

But the thing is it has been an intense game, which France have not lost while playing with 14 players for 20 minutes, away, and totally inexperienced.....

I haven't read many british pundits willing to say France didn't deserve that.

A dit disappointed by the réactions of the welsh players at the end of the game and the post match conference though...

[Sandydragon]

That game was mean as. Two teams going at it for the full 80. The young Welsh 13 has a big future, he was relentlessly positive. I’m loving how the French are playing off a demon 9.

Lots of people not so sure about him. Whilst not as defensively sound as JD2, he has a good range of skills and wants to play rugby. I’m pleased he was selected today and I think he will improve.

Yes. Fair play to Tompkins. He has gas, footwork, dog, is attack-orientated and for a smallish man is quite powerful. OK, he made a few mistakes (like many of his team mates) but looks a good long term bet for the Welsh 13 shirt. He does bring some zip to the midfield and is a good partner for the hard running Parkes.

If he were the only player making mistakes then it might be a fair shout, but when experienced players are also slipping up I’m more than prepared to give a promising player time to develop.

[Sandydragon]

What is painfully apparent is that whilst we could have won yesterday, we will need to up our game for next week. A lot. I’m not convinced that we need lots of changes, even any, but we need to work on our defence, set pieces and breakdown or it will be a long afternoon.

[Son of Mathonwy]

What is painfully apparent is that whilst we could have won yesterday, we will need to up our game for next week. A lot. I’m not convinced that we need lots of changes, even any, but we need to work on our defence, set pieces and breakdown or it will be a long afternoon.

We need to take a very close look at that England-Ireland game and have some kind of plan. But if we can get better at what we are doing, cut out the errors, we can compete. This team is capable of creating chances. Agreed, there are no obvious personnel changes, although I expect we will need a new winger (I don't like the thought of North taking another collision for a while).

[normanski]

What is painfully apparent is that whilst we could have won yesterday, we will need to up our game for next week. A lot. I’m not convinced that we need lots of changes, even any, but we need to work on our defence, set pieces and breakdown or it will be a long afternoon.

We need to take a very close look at that England-Ireland game and have some kind of plan. But if we can get better at what we are doing, cut out the errors, we can compete. This team is capable of creating chances. Agreed, there are no obvious personnel changes, although I expect we will need a new winger (I don't like the thought of North taking another collision for a while).

It’ll be a risk putting Liam Williams in straight away against England at home. And an even more so, a real baptism of fire for Zammit - Twickenham can be really intimidating for an inexperienced youngster.

If Adams is fit then I’d put McNicholl on for North with Liam on the bench to cover the back three.

As you both say we don’t need personnel changes but a huge uplift in tempo with our line speed and getting the ball away quickly from the breakdowns.

England at home with their heavyweight pack is going to be hard work. Pivac really needs to replace Dillon Lewis after 55 minutes to give Brown a good run out.

As you say we can create chances but we really need to finish them with points on the scoreboard.

[Numbers]

What is painfully apparent is that whilst we could have won yesterday, we will need to up our game for next week. A lot. I’m not convinced that we need lots of changes, even any, but we need to work on our defence, set pieces and breakdown or it will be a long afternoon.

There is nothing wrong with our set piece, 9/10 Scrums 10/10 Lineouts, France also lost one scrum and had 100% at the lineout. Our defence was not as good as I would like as you say, only 114/132 tackles completed, though France were only one percentile better in this facet. The breakdown was competitive also, we won 114/116 rucks whereas France won 66/68 and we won all our mauls and France all but one, France also conceded 13 penalties, we conceded 7.

So all in all we had the better of the stats on Saturday, which would have been borne out with a win interception aside.

[francoisfou]

That was a very good game with a bit of needle and one or two controversial referee's decisions (I'm persuaded that Willemse was committed to the tackle and not attempting to intercept!) What was all the handbags about after the final whistle? I had guests but chose to ignore them and watched the game until the end and was obliged to switch off! Not being rugby people, they thought it quite amusing that I was screaming at the tv!
As an aside, I hope someone's going to tell Biggar to stop flapping his arms and whingeing at every decision that goes against him. Fine player he certainly is, but the game could do without that behaviour.
For the England game, Liam Williams must start on the wing in place of North, as he's truly world class.

[Numbers]

That was a very good game with a bit of needle and one or two controversial referee's decisions (I'm persuaded that Willemse was committed to the tackle and not attempting to intercept!) What was all the handbags about after the final whistle? I had guests but chose to ignore them and watched the game until the end and was obliged to switch off! Not being rugby people, they thought it quite amusing that I was screaming at the tv!
As an aside, I hope someone's going to tell Biggar to stop flapping his arms and whingeing at every decision that goes against him. Fine player he certainly is, but the game could do without that behaviour.
For the England game, Liam Williams must start on the wing in place of North, as he's truly world class.

I can't argue with much of that, it could have been a yellow perhaps for the second row but I've seen those given and not given, Dan Biggar does need to keep a lid on it, it's only a matter of time before he gets a yellow with that sort of behaviour, there's no need for it in rugby at all.

Best of luck to Les Bleus in the next two games, it should be a grand slam and for the first time in a long time France are performing to the level we expect and it's a delight to watch.

[francoisfou]

Cheers, Numbers!
I'd rather not think about the Grand Slam for the moment. Murrayfield on Sunday the 8th is to be won first and thenI'll begin thinking about Ireland the following Saturday (for which I have a ticket!!)