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'There are opportunities to attack this French team'

France/ PA

If ‘Le Crunch’ ever needed any more drama and spice added to it, this will be the first time since 2010 that France are heading into the match with a Grand Slam on the line.

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It was a bizarre Guinness Six Nations round four for both France and England; Les Bleus came away with the result they wanted against Wales in Cardiff but perhaps not the performance they wanted, while England did not get the resulted they wanted but put in an inspired performance all things considered.

Regardless of performances, the reality is France are gunning for the Championship while England are out of the picture, but that does not mean Eddie Jones’ side will roll over and die with this possibly being the last time the two sides will meet in Paris before the 2023 World Cup.

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When, where and how to watch the match
The match will kick-off at 20:00 (UK) on Saturday March 19th at the Stade de France and will be broadcast live on ITV in the UK, RTÉ in Ireland, Stan Sport in Australia and SuperSport in South Africa.

Head-to-head
Saturday will be the 109th Test between the two sides, with England coming away with 60 wins so far to France’s 41, with seven draws along the way. England have also come out on top over their last ten meetings, winning seven, and are on a two match winning streak, with France’s last win coming at the Stade de France two years ago.

Match odds from bet365
bet365 have the handicap on France at -8, with 5/14 odds that they win. There are also 12/5 odds that the visitors leave Paris with the win.

Six Nations Early Payout Offer with bet365*

Single bets paid out as winners, if the team you back goes 15 points ahead – for multiple bets the selection will be marked as a winner.
Only available to new and eligible customers. Bet restrictions and T&Cs apply. 18+ BeGambleAware.org

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Prediction
Bath and former England fly-half Danny Cipriani joined Ugo Monye and Sam Warburton on the BBC’s Six Nations: Rugby Special on Sunday, and while he did expect France to secure the Grand Slam at home, he did outline what England must work on this week heading to Paris.

“It’s work rate, it’s getting into position as quickly as you can and being a viable option every time,” the 34-year-old said. “At the breakdown if you have one-off runners you’re going to find it very difficult against a very big French side that are going to get a lot of turnovers. But if you’re working as a unit, you’ve got three forwards at the line with the No10 connected at the back, forwards running into spaces on the other channels, there are opportunities to attack this French team but you have to be all in sync and make sure all week you’re completely hammering your attacking shape.”

*Odds accurate as of 14/03/22.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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