Leicester stick with Bok-style bench as Pollard starts versus Farrell

I think he’s a great player. A couple of years off being recognised as one of the best - if not the best - utility backs in the world, but 14 really isn’t his position.

I’d have him at 15 and Keenan at 14. Maybe they’ll swap around a bit during the game.

I think it has all to do with coaching. There’s an old adage about being given the keys to a Ferrari and treating it like a lawnmower. Borthwick now has the sort of backing his union only gives in World Cups around player availability and training camps as well as their enhanced contracts. They really needed to deliver this tournament.

Osborne; Nash, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe; Crowley, Murray; Porter, Kelleher, Furlong; McCarthy, Ryan; Beirne, Van der Flier, Doris (capt).

In the Autumn we were bedding a new attack coach and undergoing a mini transition.

Again in Durban that was purportedly a full strenght SA team, the most capped of all time, at home but losing to an understrenght Ireland team. 4 huge 7 pointer calls also went SAa way in Test 1, when they were gassed in the altitude.

One win out of five (the strange first test) is the score between the sides.

You did have a couple of narrow wins against NZ but they were at home and you are losing those if in NZ. NZ will probably win the Rugby Championship.

Start Healy and get him to empty Dupont in the first minute. Be sure to look clumsy but not nasty in the contact. A big dozy prop tackle.

Ireland would suffer a man down for 20 mins but France would be 2/3 down without their magician for the next 79 mins.

You could for sure argue that the games they lost they could have won if the bounce of a ball went differently. In none of those narrow loses did England feel considerably the better team and there weren't moments you'd chalk up to massive amounts of fortune. In the two narrow loses they very much felt like the worst team and there were many moments where the rub of the green went England's way. Ultimately, they've had an uptick in variance which will average itself out to more losses because they're not good. These two results don't mean anything has been fixed. As I say, performances are what I'm looking for, not results, the results come if the performances are good and right now the performance in every game has more or less been dire.

As the red card for Ringrose fell right before a fallow week, he WAS released by Leinster who provided accompanying substantiation. Precedent shows club matches are included in bans in such cases. For Galthie/France alone precedents are Atonio (2023), Haouas (2023), and Danty (2024). Club matches counted for bans.

Ntamack was different because France were due to play a match the following week (versus England). Therefore Galthie COULD NOT release Ntamack. In the written decision, Galthie tried to argue that Ntamack would be released after England but had to admit that a lot depended on outcome of England match which was unknowable. On top of that Ntamack was the starting outhalf for France.

The precedents for the Ntamack situation are O’Mahony (2021) where club games did not count, and Willemse (2024) where Willemse had a 10 match ban reduced to 4 and club matches DID count for the suspension.

So Galthie has had three cases like Ringrose (Atonio, Haouas, Danty) with same outcome as Ringrose. He had one previous case like Ntamack where he succeeded, but he was aware of and even mentioned the O’Mahony case where all the ban was for International matches.

In a nutshell. Why were those players allowed club matches to count? Because they WERE released for the club games.

Why did club matches not count for O’Mahony and Ntamack? Because they WERE NOT released for the club games which meant they could not reach the evidential threshold required.

Why is he demanding a World Rugby inquiry when he knows the reasons for such decisions, has known for years, has benefitted for years? France know this and Ireland knows this.

Dupont and the French team are honorable. This wont sit well with them. I would argue this is a bigger motivator for Ireland than for France.

Conclusion: Galthie is under serious pressure to win this match

I hope France wins.

Ireland’s scrum were better against England and Scotland. Ireland were not physically dominated against the Welsh scrum and raised concerns with the officials regarding a deliberately weak engagement by the Welsh and then immediately looking for grass. That said Slimani will advise French scrum and advise coaches what to whisper in officials ear pre match.