Wales team for France

Wales:

Leigh Halfpenny; Alex Cuthbert, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, George North; Rhys Priestland, Mike Phillips;
Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Ian Evans, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton (C), Toby Faletau

Replacements:

Ken Owens, Paul James, Luke Charteris, Ryan Jones, Lloyd Williams, James Hook, Scott Williams


France:

C Poitrenaud (Toulouse); W Fofana (Clermont Auvergne), A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), F Fritz (Toulouse), A Palisson (Toulon); L Beauxis (Stade Francais), D Yachvili (Biarritz); J-B Poux (Toulouse), W Servat (Toulouse), D Attoub (Stade Francais), P Pape (Stade Francais), Y Maestri (Toulouse), T Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz).

Replacements: D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), V Debaty (Clermont Auvergne), J Pierre (Clermont Auvergne), L Picamoles (Toulouse), M Parra (Clermont), F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), J-M Buttin (Clermont Auvergne).


No place for Tipuric

He's gone for the full first team and backed himself - Difficult to argue against - AWJ in on his past performances as opposed to recent ones but again difficult to criticise with ample back up on the bench.

Good team. Would prefer to see Webb to be on the bench instead of Lloyd Williams though.

that French team is absolute rubbish. As a half-Frenchman it makes me really angry

where do I start?
Fofana: probably the find of the tournament for France, picked on the wing bizarrely after shining at IC.
Fritz: picked at IC, don't think he's ever played there in his life, or very rarely, he's an OC.
Palisson: probably a better FB than winger, not very good anyway.
Beauxis: why? FTD is ten times the player he is.
Yachvili: am I the only one who saw the massive improvement when Parra came on against England? Parra should be starting.
As should Picamoles (line-out isn't Wales's strength, we really don't need two line-out specialists in the back-row).
I'm assuming Mas is injured, otherwise where is he?

sorry for high-jacking the thread somewhat, but I'm very upset by this selection. St-Andre started well, but this is very poor indeed.

Wales by at least 15 points, unless France kick to the corners all day and put enough pressure on the Wales line-out.

No room on the bench for Tuperic??

Shanes Lover wrote:No room on the bench for Tuperic??

Hard for him to miss out but Ryan Jones has made an impact in every game and we have to cover for lock ,prop and hooker .I know Ryan can cover lock and back-row but France will target the line-out and it's best to have a specialist on the bench . Tipuric will have his day if only because of the attritional nature of Warbuton's way of playing.

my mistake..!! apologies Justin...

Harsh on Tipuric but it's early doors in his career and at this stage there's no harm letting him know that he has to work hard to win and hold down his place. Not that he's done anything to lose it, he's just unlucky to be up against an experienced and hard-working Ryan Jones. It's lovely to see competition for places at its best atm.

Just as I'd hoped, the entire French back row fit and firing. It's going to be intense but we'll do it, the belief will have reached its peak as it will have done by this stage in 05 and 08.

We need to outmuscle France through the forwards and exploit the physical advantage in the backline, not so much to put away our opportunities as to prevent the French backs from flowing as we know they can. They cannot win anything and will have zero pressure on them, I expect a much greater challenge than in the 08 finale. But we have more to play for, we must keep them pinned in their own half and keep the scoreboard ticking.

Do we think Hookie will play a part??

Knowsit17 wrote:Harsh on Tipuric but it's early doors in his career and at this stage there's no harm letting him know that he has to work hard to win and hold down his place. Not that he's done anything to lose it, he's just unlucky to be up against an experienced and hard-working Ryan Jones. It's lovely to see competition for places at its best atm.

Lets just hope he has what it takes to stay competitive and doesnt join the ranks of Marty Holah, Nick Evans and so on of "what could have been".

The Wales team is very mutch like i thought it would be, but would of thought that Ken Owens would start at Hooker rather than Mathew Rees.

Surprise Tipuric as been dropped.

Rhys Webb and Justin Tipuric out of the 22?!! now it could be partly my O's bias (probably it is when i say Webb for Williams) but I would have rather seen AWJ out of the 22, Charteris starting, Ryan covering lock, and Tipuric covering back row. So i think we can rule out and Ospreys bias. What has AWJ done to secure a strating place?! absolutel f all, and i don't want to hear anything bout the lineout coz it only improved when Charteris came on (who did more in the (20mins?) he was on then AWJ did in two games. Ryan and Tipuric have been much more effective then AWJ and Gatland is irritatingly too in love with certain players and scared to make them feel undervalued by not starting them. I don't think Rees should be starting infront of Owens as well... and I hope Hookie doesn't play any part.

Hard to complain about any of it really - I would have gone for Webb instead of LW who I dont rate. I actually feel for Rhys Gill who had a great match against Ireland and has not been seen since - Tipuric, Gill, Owens etc these are all good signs for Wales

RubyGuby wrote:Tipuric, Gill, Owens etc these are all good signs for Wales

Talking of strength in depth, Ashley Beck still hadn't had a look-in yet. He's going to be some player for Wales, I'd say. We could still do with a playmaker in midfield.

We can always produce useful backs but I never thought I'd see the day that we had 5 decent locks in the squad and some very good back up props. Traditional areas of weakness

Adam Jones is as vital to us as ever, though.

Pretty happy with that team and the bench. I would swap Charts and AWJ around but other than that its pretty much spot on.

Adam Jones is as vital to us as ever, though

Yup no real quality TH around to replace him yet.

Preety much as expected, I would have been tempted to go with Owens and Charteris instead of Rees and AWJ but don't want too much tinkering.

Forwards on the bench look very strong.