France v Scotland - Match thread

by **George Carlin** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 5:47 am

16th March 2013
Kick off: 21:00 (Local) / 20:00 (UK/Ireland)
Stade de France, Paris

Match officials:

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)

Assistant referees: Clownshoes Clancy (Ireland) and Lourens Van Der Merwe (South Africa).
TMO: Carlo Damasco (Italy)

TEAMS:

France: Wink

15 Yoann Huget
14 Vincent Clerc
13 Mathieu Bastareaud
12 Wesley Fofana
11 Maxime Médard
10 Frederic Michalak
9 Morgan Parra

8 Louis Picamoles
7 Thierry Dusautoir
6 Antonie Claassen
5 Yoann Maestri
4 Sebastien Vahaamahina
3 Nicolas Mas
2 Benjamin Kayser
1 Thomas Domingo

Replacements:
16 Guilhem Guirado,
17 Vincent Debaty,
18 Luc Ducalcon,
19 Christophe Samson,
20 Yannick Nyanga,
21 Maxime Machenaud,
22 Francois Trinh-Duc,
23 Florian Fritz or Gael Fickou.

Scotland: monkey

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors)

14 Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors)
13 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors)
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby)
11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby)

10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors)
9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) vice-captain

1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors) vice-captain,
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby)
3 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors)
4 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) uncapped
5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester)
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan)
7 Kelly Brown (Saracens) captain
8 Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier)

Substitutes
16 Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors)
17 Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors)
18 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby)
19 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors)
20 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors)
21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors)
22 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors)
23 Max Evans (Castres)

Not considered due to injury: Alasdair Dickinson and Richie Gray (Sale Sharks), Chris Cusiter and Chris Fusaro (both Glasgow Warriors), David Denton and Ross Rennie (both Edinburgh Rugby) and Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby).

Form Guide:

France:

9/3/13 Ire 13 - 13 Fra

23/2/13 Eng 23 - 13 Fra

9/2/13 Fra 6 - 16 Wal

Scotland:

9/3/13 Sco 18 - 28 Wal

24/2/13 Sco 12 - 8 Ire

9/2/13 Sco 34 - 10 Ita

Official Match Preview (courtesy of Sportsbeat):

Philippe Saint-Andre has reiterated the point that his long-term objective for France remains the 2015 World Cup - but in the short-term he knows only too well the value of an RBS 6 Nations victory over Scotland on Saturday.

Saint-Andre's side and Scotland will bring the curtain down on this year's competition with France seeking to avoid finishing bottom of the pile for the first time in RBS 6 Nations history.

They remain without a win in seven Championship matches but Louis Picamoles' opportunist try and Frederic Michalak's nerveless conversion sealed a 13-13 draw with Ireland last time out and a first point of the competition.

Scotland were the last team to succumb to France in the RBS 6 Nations, last February, and Saint-Andre can point to the fact that after poor showings against Italy and Wales, les Bleus have demonstrated improvements against England and Italy.

But should they fail to beat Scotland at home this weekend and Italy get something at home to Ireland, they will collect the wooden spoon, something Saint-Andre is desperate to avoid.

"At least we will not be playing to avoid a whitewash," he said.

"It's important to see that the players showed a reaction. On Saturday we want to play the whole match with that intensity for the full 80 minutes.

"I will of course, as is my nature, assume total responsibility and take the blame for the campaign.

"The federation and the committee director gave us a target to prepare for 2015. We will continue to work towards that objective.

"I take the responsibility because I have always done that, I have never tried to shift it on to others in my career."

If Scotland are to ensure France finish bottom, they will have to defeat les Bleus for the first time in seven RBS 6 Nations clashes and will have the carrot of the possibility of finishing the Championship in second, should they win - and England defeat Wales - with a healthy points swing.

To do so however, they will have to improve on their performance against Wales last time out when too many penalties conceded saw Leigh Halfpenny kick the Red Dragons to a 28-18 victory at Murrayfield.

Regardless, there have been plenty of beacons of light for the Scots and interim boss Scott Johnson, with impressive wins over Italy and Ireland already secured.

But Johnson is under no illusions as to how his side must react to their defeat to Wales.

"We showed great heart and great resolve but we have to look at ourselves rather than at anyone else," said Johnson.

"I don't want to coach a side that apportions blame to someone else, we will go back and have a look and if we have to make changes we will do so, but we will go to Paris to compete.

"The frustrating thing for us is that we think we have a world class scrum and we think we have a world class line-out but we can't get to show it.

"When we get it right, we've got a quality team.

"I keep saying it; we have the ability to put teams to bed but we have to get the first bit right and we're not.
"We don't want our mirror to lie. Our mirror is going to be clean."

by **RDW** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 8:03 am

Good job GC. Minor point but is it not 9pm ko local time?

I'm assuming the team announcement will be today? Would be surprised if he changes much.

by Taffineastbourne Wed 13 Mar 2013, 8:16 am

Yep.This game should be after the watershed!

by **George Carlin** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 8:43 am

RDW - correct.

Taff - absolutely correct.

by **RDW** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 8:50 am

I’m strangely relaxed and looking forward to this game. The pressure is off a bit and hopefully the players will feel that too and go out and enjoy themselves. I’ve been pretty nervous about most of our previous games for various reasons:

England – well, it is England! First game of the championship so a chance to gauge how we will fair.

Italy – wooden spoon decider, lose this and it is going to be a long championship

Ireland – have we finally turned a corner? Big chance to win back to back wins

Wales – still in a chance to win the championship, although very slim. Have not beaten Wales in a long time.

And that leaves us France. We’re not going to claim the wooden spoon and we have no chance of winning, so hopefully the shackles will be off a bit and we can play some rugby!

I can see this being an open, fast game of rugby – France’s default setting when under pressure at home is to run opposition ragged and can see them doing the same thing. I can see us either sneaking it or France running 5 tries past us – it is so hard to tell! I genuineily think we will see a French backlash though and Scotland are good at giving low confidence teams new found confidence.

I’m gonna go for France 30 Scotland 18, with us scoring 2 tries.

by ghad Wed 13 Mar 2013, 8:57 am

Hopefully the crowd will start raging at France after their first knock on and the French team will subsequently implode.

If France play a blinder and Scotland still don't compete the breakdown, the fact that it's on at 2000hrs on a super Saturday should help as I will be upsidedown drunk by then.

by **George Carlin** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 8:58 am

The ligindary yappy dog that is Mr Gary Armstrong and the bulldozer that is Mr Alan Tait gave a nice interview to the Herald today, basically saying that we should chuck it about now and give our backs a chance to have a crack. They were obviously harking back to 99 where we scored five tries and could have had much more.

The article also made the point that there's no way France can finish above us, so we have absolutely nothing to lose.

I having a good feeling about this one RDW. If our fowards stop dialling in their performances and Weir stops booting the arse off the ball, then it will be a pleasure to watch. If only the bloody thing didn't start at midnight over here. picard

by tigertattie Wed 13 Mar 2013, 9:23 am

Well

What needs to happen is for scotland to put in a good performance. Our forwards need to bloody man up and get involved at the breakdown or the French will see plenty quick ball and we know what thier backline can do with quick ball.

Its time we gave our back some quick ball to RUN with. If I see Laidlaw or Weir booting the leather off the ball all day then I will need to say that by the end of the championship Scotland have made NO progress on last year! Regardless of where we finish in the table, Italy and Ireland played so badly to give us those points, we never played well to earn them!

I've got one eye on building a team for the next world cup. Currently I see a team (or a team employing its current kick the ball tactics) as being a team that will again fail to get out of the group stages!

by **RDW** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 9:30 am

Think I might tweet to Nigel Owens to plead for him to allow some scrummaging to take place. I'm assuming as a professional referee he is more than happy to take suggestions from the general public.

On that matter if he could dish out a couple of yellows to the French that would be even better... Whistle

by whocares Wed 13 Mar 2013, 9:42 am

well its been snowing hard yesterday and overnight in Paris and the northern parts of the town are even more affected... with current subzero temperature and an evening KO, the pitch will be in best case sh*t condition as usual or worst case the game will be cancelled/postponed like last year if the weather doesnt improve (which it hopefully should by the way).

by **NeilyBroon** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 9:45 am

RDW_Scotland wrote:Think I might tweet to Nigel Owens to plead for him to allow some scrummaging to take place. I'm assuming as a professional referee he is more than happy to take suggestions from the general public.

On that matter if he could dish out a couple of yellows to the French that would be even better...

Nigel Owens is a vast improvement on Barnes and Joubert. He may not pick as many things up but he keeps a game flowing and usually is fair on both sides.

by Luckless Pedestrian Wed 13 Mar 2013, 9:56 am

Two things I'll say about Nigel Owens: he's consistent - if he's penalising one team for something, he'll penalise the other team too; and his playing of advantage is the best I've seen from any referee this season.

I wish he could officiate Wales games!

by **RDW** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 9:57 am

It really is a sad reflection of the current state of the game that we spend so much time before a match discussing the ref instead of the teams.

I really hope it doesn't turn into football where most of MOTD is spent discussing ref decisions.

by Luckless Pedestrian Wed 13 Mar 2013, 10:07 am

It doesn't help that there hasn't been much rugby to discuss the last few rounds.

by **RDW** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 10:10 am

You raise a very good point there luckless!

by Luckless Pedestrian Wed 13 Mar 2013, 10:18 am

I'm hoping this'll be an open game. I remember a cracker of a match a few seasons ago - the game where Richie Grey announced himself. Sean Lamont scored a couple I think, and Harinordoquy scored a fantastic try. That's how I recall it, anyway.

by whocares Wed 13 Mar 2013, 11:38 am

those were the days LP Sad

by tigertattie Wed 13 Mar 2013, 11:47 am

Have le blues not put undersoil heating in yet?

by **George Carlin** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 11:48 am

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I'm hoping this'll be an open game. I remember a cracker of a match a few seasons ago - the game where Richie Grey announced himself. Sean Lamont scored a couple I think, and Harinordoquy scored a fantastic try. That's how I recall it, anyway.

2011, Luckless. The kicker was that we lost that game 34-21 and as often happened under Robinson, once we felt that the game was gone, we decided to play what was in front of us and just have a bash. We scored 3 tries. I recall that the try by the HairyKnorrDonkey killed the game off.

by Captain_Sensible Wed 13 Mar 2013, 11:57 am

Scotland team to play France in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at Stade de France, Paris on Saturday 16 March (kick-off 8pm GMT)

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) 14 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

14 Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps, 1 try, 5 points
13 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) 75 caps, 9 tries, 45 points
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) 11 caps, 1 try, 5 points
11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby) 9 caps, 5 tries, 25 points

10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps, 1 conversion, 2 points
9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) vice-captain, 17 caps, 2 tries, 16 conversions and 36 penalties, 150 points

1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors) vice-captain, 9 caps
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) 67 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors) 52 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
4 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) uncapped (Scotland cap number 1039)
5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester) 45 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan) 31 caps, 1 try, 5 points
7 Kelly Brown (Saracens) captain, 56 caps, 4 tries, 20 points
8 Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier) 20 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

Substitutes
16 Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors) 41 caps, 1 try, 5 points
17 Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors) 17 caps
18 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby) 20 caps, 1 try, 5 points
19 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) 51 caps, 1 try, 5 points
20 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) 1 cap
21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps, 1 try, 5 points
22 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors) 19 caps, 2 conversions, 2 penalties, 2 drop-goals, 16 points
23 Max Evans (Castres) 34 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

Not considered due to injury: Alasdair Dickinson and Richie Gray (Sale Sharks), Chris Cusiter and Chris Fusaro (both Glasgow Warriors), David Denton and Ross Rennie (both Edinburgh Rugby) and Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby).

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales). Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland) and Lourens Van Der Merwe (South Africa). TMO: Carlo Damasco (Italy)

by Luckless Pedestrian Wed 13 Mar 2013, 11:57 am

Two inside passes and he was under the posts. They made it look so simple, but then, it is. It's a simple game and we try to over-complicate it.

by **RDW** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 11:59 am

Wow - few surprises in there! Gilchrist is a massive surprise - he hasn't played much at all recently, same for Strokosh. Harley being completely dropped is very harsh.

by **George Carlin** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:01 pm

Captain_Sensible wrote:Scotland team to play France in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at Stade de France, Paris on Saturday 16 March (kick-off 8pm GMT)

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) 14 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

14 Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps, 1 try, 5 points
13 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) 75 caps, 9 tries, 45 points
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) 11 caps, 1 try, 5 points
11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby) 9 caps, 5 tries, 25 points

10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps, 1 conversion, 2 points
9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) vice-captain, 17 caps, 2 tries, 16 conversions and 36 penalties, 150 points

1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors) vice-captain, 9 caps
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) 67 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors) 52 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
4 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) uncapped (Scotland cap number 1039)
5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester) 45 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan) 31 caps, 1 try, 5 points
7 Kelly Brown (Saracens) captain, 56 caps, 4 tries, 20 points
8 Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier) 20 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

Substitutes
16 Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors) 41 caps, 1 try, 5 points
17 Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors) 17 caps
18 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby) 20 caps, 1 try, 5 points
19 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) 51 caps, 1 try, 5 points
20 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) 1 cap
21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps, 1 try, 5 points
22 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors) 19 caps, 2 conversions, 2 penalties, 2 drop-goals, 16 points
23 Max Evans (Castres) 34 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

Not considered due to injury: Alasdair Dickinson and Richie Gray (Sale Sharks), Chris Cusiter and Chris Fusaro (both Glasgow Warriors), David Denton and Ross Rennie (both Edinburgh Rugby) and Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby).

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales). Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland) and Lourens Van Der Merwe (South Africa). TMO: Carlo Damasco (Italy)

Strokosch??? Nooooooo. picard

by EWT Spoons Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:05 pm

Can't understand why Stroker is involved, unless it's a money saving thing from the SRU, reducing travel costs.

by **RDW** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:12 pm

His familiarity with the French?

by **NeilyBroon** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:19 pm

George Carlin wrote:
Captain_Sensible wrote:Scotland team to play France in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at Stade de France, Paris on Saturday 16 March (kick-off 8pm GMT)

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) 14 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

14 Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps, 1 try, 5 points
13 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) 75 caps, 9 tries, 45 points
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) 11 caps, 1 try, 5 points
11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby) 9 caps, 5 tries, 25 points

10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps, 1 conversion, 2 points
9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) vice-captain, 17 caps, 2 tries, 16 conversions and 36 penalties, 150 points

1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors) vice-captain, 9 caps
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) 67 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors) 52 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
4 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) uncapped (Scotland cap number 1039)
5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester) 45 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan) 31 caps, 1 try, 5 points
7 Kelly Brown (Saracens) captain, 56 caps, 4 tries, 20 points
8 Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier) 20 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

Substitutes
16 Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors) 41 caps, 1 try, 5 points
17 Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors) 17 caps
18 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby) 20 caps, 1 try, 5 points
19 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) 51 caps, 1 try, 5 points
20 Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) 1 cap
21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps, 1 try, 5 points
22 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors) 19 caps, 2 conversions, 2 penalties, 2 drop-goals, 16 points
23 Max Evans (Castres) 34 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

Not considered due to injury: Alasdair Dickinson and Richie Gray (Sale Sharks), Chris Cusiter and Chris Fusaro (both Glasgow Warriors), David Denton and Ross Rennie (both Edinburgh Rugby) and Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby).

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales). Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland) and Lourens Van Der Merwe (South Africa). TMO: Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Strokosch??? Nooooooo.

My hopes for a good game have been significantly diminished since I saw stroks on the list. This selection reeks of Andy Robinson, fml!

by **George Carlin** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:19 pm

Did John Barclay insult SJ's mullet/dress sense/sensibilities or something?

by **NeilyBroon** Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:21 pm

George Carlin wrote:Did John Barclay insult SJ's mullet/dress sense/sensibilities or something?

More importantly, is Strokosch SJ's golf partner or something?

by GLove39 Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:21 pm

Hmmm, not sure what bald Al brings to the table?
Thoughts on Gilchrist? I'd have thought try scoring machine Swinson would have been in with a shout?

by bsando Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:28 pm

Yeah I thought Swinson would be a shoe in for replacing Gray Headscratch

But congrats to Gilchrist! Hope he plays well.

Noticed that Heathcote is injured.

by ghad Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:35 pm

Swinson looked pretty rough when he came off during the Cardiff game so may still be in the stages of returning to play after concussion protocol.

Not seen much of Gilchrist so looking forward to that. With Barclay and Harley ommitted looks like Glasgow will have a full strength back row for Leinster (depending upon how much game time Wilson gets)

by doctornickolas Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:40 pm

I'd like to see Scotland have a real go at the French. There is nothing really to play for from the Championship point of view but it would be nice to see some players get decent ball and with the pressure off throw it around a bit. There seems little point in just sticking it up the jumper.

There are probably a lot of 50/50 decisions regarding the Lions and this weekend will go someway to sorting those out. If Scotland get tuned then realistically some players who are in with a shout will see their case for inclusion decrease.

Those players with Lions aspirations need to stand out this weekend. The best way of doing that is in a winning team playing decent rugby.

by RuggerRadge2611 Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:43 pm

ghad wrote:Swinson looked pretty rough when he came off during the Cardiff game so may still be in the stages of returning to play after concussion protocol.

Not seen much of Gilchrist so looking forward to that. With Barclay and Harley ommitted looks like Glasgow will have a full strength back row for Leinster (depending upon how much game time Wilson gets)

Perhaps that's why Swinson, Wilson and Barclay have been left alone.

All in all not a terrible selection, although I don't know why we need to blindside flankers.

by funnyExiledScot Wed 13 Mar 2013, 12:51 pm

This is not a team picked to "have a real go", or "fling it about". SJ and Ryan, rather than increasing the mobility and workrate of the pack, have actually gone for the biggest and heaviest options available.

The weather is predicted to be dire.

They have gone for a big and powerful pack, and I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Visser and Maitland don't touch the ball. We'll be seeing Laidlaw and Weir kicking a lot of ball.

by funnyExiledScot Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:00 pm

The Strokosch explanation in public is "experience", which always gets my back up. The same could be said of Jason White. In fact he has more "experience".

John Barclay should be starting at 7, he really should.

I'm very pleased for Grant Gilchrist. Great attitude and his workrate for Edinburgh this season has always been good. I personally think it's too soon for him, and that both Kellock and Swinson are having better seasons, but hey ho. He's certainly got a big future ahead of him and has been a steady performer starting for Edinburgh for two seasons now. There isn't a lot of balance to a second row of Hamilton and Gilchrist, but balance isn't an issue to Dean Ryan clearly.

by whocares Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:19 pm

tigertattie wrote:Have le blues not put undersoil heating in yet?

nope

also, the french players could not train during 2 days because all their training pitches were snowed in. the starting XV will likely be the same against Ireland bar injuries.

by funnyExiledScot Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:22 pm

So the pitch will be a mess then as per the Wales game. Frustrating for both sides I suspect, who'll want to be playing proper rugby, rather than watching the scrum be re-set for the umpteenth time.

You'd think in this day and age they'd have undersoil heating. It's hardly an old stadium!

by EWT Spoons Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:35 pm

funnyExiledScot wrote:So the pitch will be a mess then as per the Wales game. Frustrating for both sides I suspect, who'll want to be playing proper rugby, rather than watching the scrum be re-set for the umpteenth time.

You'd think in this day and age they'd have undersoil heating. It's hardly an old stadium!

If they could fix the toilets whilst they're at it, that would be nice.

by funnyExiledScot Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:38 pm

Toilets. In France. Times have changed!

by tigertattie Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:40 pm

Strokes over Harley

Gilchrist over swinston

Evans over anyone.

SJ is turning into Robinson.

by GLove39 Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:43 pm

Evans is on the bench makes sense as it saves him money on a flight back to France...

by EWT Spoons Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:43 pm

I use the word 'toilet' in the loosest possible sense

by IanBru Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:45 pm

EWT Spoons wrote:If they could fix the toilets whilst they're at it, that would be nice.

Surely they can't be worse than at Stadio Flaminio?? One toilet block for the main stand, serving around 10,000 people, with two women's cubicles. My girlfriend was NOT pleased. Shocked

by funnyExiledScot Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:45 pm

GLove39 wrote:Evans is on the bench makes sense as it saves him money on a flight back to France...

I think that's why Strokosch is in for Harley as well. Save money on the flight.

Seriously though, I expect conditions and the pitch to be awful, so it may well be the sort of game to go in with as heavy a pack as possible, and two half backs well schooled in kicking the leather off the ball. Not my choices, but I suspect that's the rationale.

by IanBru Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:49 pm

The one thing I'd say for France this year is that their handling has been attrocious, particularly under the high ball - knock ons really blunted their momentum in the matches against Wales, England and Ireland, particularly in the second halves.

With that in mind, some tricky up-and-unders from Weir with a mud-swathed ball might be just the ticket.

I'm looking for positives... Still looking...

by funnyExiledScot Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:50 pm

Wait for the French team selection.

There are usually some positives for the opposition in there!

That reserve scrum half instead of Parra would be gratefully received....

by reallybored Wed 13 Mar 2013, 1:58 pm

Gilchrist deserves his start, he was the best lock during the 1872 Cup and has been Edinburgh's stand-out forward this season. Swinson scores a couple in the Dragons rout and is all of a sudden the best lock in Scotland, calm down.

by tigertattie Wed 13 Mar 2013, 2:01 pm

Swinson was the stand out lock in the 1872 games (both of them)

And I'm no a weegie so no bias in my opinion

by funnyExiledScot Wed 13 Mar 2013, 2:05 pm

reallybored wrote:Gilchrist deserves his start, he was the best lock during the 1872 Cup and has been Edinburgh's stand-out forward this season. Swinson scores a couple in the Dragons rout and is all of a sudden the best lock in Scotland, calm down.

Wrong. Plain wrong. Those of us calling for Swinson have been doing so before he scored two tries against the Dragons, and on the basis that he's played consistently well in each and every game he's played for Glasgow this season. He's tough, good at the breakdown and mobile; effectively a flanker able to play lock. For a pack that has been splattered in the breakdown in each game of this tournament, I think there are plenty good reasons to consider Swinson the right choice.

As for Gilchrist, he could have been utterly dire in each and every Edinburgh game this season and still be "Edinburgh's stand-out forward". Deserving to play means being the best in your country. There is no chance, no chance at all, that you can justify Gilchrist as having performed better than Swinson (or even Kellock) this season.

Yes, he may have a bigger future, but that doesn't factor into "merit" at this stage. As a partner for Hamilton I think he's wrong as well. I'm a big fan of Gilchrist, and expect great things from him over his career, but I do think he's a lucky boy to be starting this game.

by GLove39 Wed 13 Mar 2013, 2:09 pm

With a heavy pack I wonder if we're going to see some more mauling action? Ireland steam rollered there way through France on Saturday really well for their try.And thought our maul looked pretty good against Wales. Plus if the weather's going to be atrocious then maybe up the jumper is the way forward for Paris.

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