Ireland vs France, 20th August, AVIVA Stadium

Marc Lievremont has named his side to face Ireland on Saturday, making 13 changes from the team that won in Bordeaux. Meanwhile, Declan Kidney has brought back several experienced players including O'Connell, David Wallace, Heaslip, O'Driscoll and D'Arcy as Ireland's preparations step up a gear. Special mention for Felix Jones, making his first start for Ireland, who looks well positioned to be our World Cup bolter should he grasp this massive opportunity.

The game will be held in the AVIVA Stadium on Saturday the 20th August, Kick-off is at 5pm.

IRELAND Team and Replacements

15 - Felix Jones (Shannon/ Munster)
14 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
13 - Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) Captain
12 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
10 - Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary's College/Leinster)
9 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)

1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 - Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:
16 - Jerry Flannery (Shannon/ Munster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
20 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/ Leinster)

FRANCE Team & Replacements:

15 - Cédric Heymans (Toulouse)
14 - Maxime Médard (Toulouse)
13 - Aurélien Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne)
12 - Fabrice Estebanez (Brive)
11 - Alexis Palisson (Toulon)
10 - David Skrela (Toulouse)
9 - Morgan Parra (Clermont Auvergne)

1 - Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse)
2 - Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais)
3 - Nicolas Mas (Perpignan)
4 - Pascal Papé (Stade Francais)
5 - Lionel Nallet (Racing Metro 92) (capt)
6 - Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier)
7 - Louis Picamoles (Toulouse)
8 - Julien Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne)

Replacements:

16 - Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan)
17 - Fabien Barcella (Biarritz Olympique)
18 - Julien Pierre (Clermont Auvergne)
19 - Raphaël Lakafia (Biarritz Olympique)
20 - Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz Olympique)
21 - Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier)
22 - Vincent Clerc (Toulouse)

Isn't the announcement today? Heard on the news this morning it was.

Boyne wrote:Isn't the announcement today? Heard on the news this morning it was.

If the announcement is today, then we are going to be getting an update on this earlier than thought

The backline is just ridiculous - completely different for the one that started last week and probably stronger in my view.

Will be interesting to see how Ross does against Poux this week. Ross wasnt too happy about his techniques (Read in one of the Sunday Papers) last Saturday.

I think ireland played the stronger french team last weekend.

A real opportunity here for Ireland to beat france and get a bit of confidence

Indeed. Frances strength in depth is unbelievable. All the same, I feel Trinh-Duc suits their game much better than Skrela and Estebanez isn't as good at centre as their other options... if anything, their tight five is stronger than last week. If we don't start with Healy, Best and Ross and leave them on they'll nail our scrum.

I think the back row although strong is not as good as last weeks one. also Trin-Duc is far beat that skekla who is a big weakness in the team.

Stronger tight 5 and back 3 in this game.

If we pick the right team, we will win this one.

Agreed. Dusatoir and Harinordoquy are outstanding players, but its far from a weakness for them.

More pertinent for me is I think our backrow will be much stronger. Heaslip and Wallace will hopefully return.

Notch wrote:Agreed. Dusatoir and Harinordoquy are outstanding players, but its far from a weakness for them.

More pertinent for me is I think our backrow will be much stronger. Heaslip and Wallace will hopefully return.

No doubt its not a weak back row. but i agree i think our starting 3 are better.

Looks like a stronger team than last week to me, with the exception of the backrow and halfbacks.

Flippin heck France's strength in depth is insane .

Should be a cracker but we're really under pressure to get a result here after two narrow defeats. I think it will take a huge performance to get a 'W' on the board here.

Like everyone is saying much better tight 5 and back 3 but weaker in between.

Now is the time when we need a win, experimentation has now to take somewhat of a back seat and start playing our first choice RWC team.

Funny how Gerry Thornley predicted it perfectly agaiN!!!!

Notch wrote:Marc Lievremont has named his side to face Ireland on Saturday, making 14 changes from the team that won in Bordeaux. Ireland are due to name their side later in the week, but it's thought that Brian O'Driscoll will be available for selection as well as a number of other players returning from injury.

France: 15 Cedric Heymans, 14 Maxime Médard, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Fabrice Estebanez, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 David Skrela, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louise Picamoles, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascale Papé, Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements:16 Guilhem Guirado , 17 Fabien Barcella , 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Raphaël Lakafia, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 David Marty, 22 Vincent Clerc

I'll update this post with news as we count down to the game, including the Ireland team announcement.

We are going to be absolutely destroyed in the scrum. Poux and mas are arguably world class on either side of the scrum.
Skrela will hinder the effectiveness of that backline though.

valjester wrote:
We are going to be absolutely destroyed in the scrum. Poux and mas are arguably world class on either side of the scrum.

I thought Mas was rubbish against us in the 6N. Our scrum held up ok and Mas was exposed a few times with lazy defence around the ruck.

wasn't he jsut back from injury or something though or is that in my head?

Barcella hasn't played any rugby for a year, so I'm not worried about him.

roddersm wrote:

valjester wrote:
We are going to be absolutely destroyed in the scrum. Poux and mas are arguably world class on either side of the scrum.

I thought Mas was rubbish against us in the 6N. Our scrum held up ok and Mas was exposed a few times with lazy defence around the ruck.

.

As pete says he was just back from injury. They will destroy us in the scrum because as a pack they are brilliant at scrummaging and because of the props they have.

Fingers crossed we can get the ball in and out of the scrums nice and quick.

I want to see a full team basically but would like Jones to start and Murray to either start but preferably bench until the 50th min or so.

I'll be very impressed with Ross and Healy if they can get parity with that front row. If they dominate our lineout again and dominate the scrums I can't see us winning. Time for Gert Smal to earn his salary. If we can compete at the set piece we can beat them.

Is Wiliam Servat hurt?

Saw him in the crowd last week.

This is who I would pick. With Paddy Wallace getting gametime at 10 in the Connacht game.

Tol at 9, Jennings at 7, Luke at 11 and Geordie at 15 (V Connacht) With Leamy and McLaughlin making up the back row.

Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)
Michael Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)
Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Felix Jones (Shannon/Munster)

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)
Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

I was with you 100% Jen til I saw Boss instead of Murray, so close!

I'll bet you a fiver we start with TOL and Sexton with Murray and ROG on the bench

Which will probably cost us the game but we must stick to ze plan....

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I was with you 100% Jen til I saw Boss instead of Murray, so close!

Yeah. You could talk me into that quite easily

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Fingers crossed we can get the ball in and out of the scrums nice and quick.

I want to see a full team basically but would like Jones to start and Murray to either start but preferably bench until the 50th min or so.

I want murray to start, last week Ireland had begun to turn the tide by the time he came on, give him a chance to face the french onslaught at the start. If he survives bring him, if not send him back to munster for the start of the season.

On the scrums, despite me saying otherwise on this thread, I would hope that feek, ross and smal manage to come up with a way of coping during the week. Ross is not as powerful or as good a scrumager as poux or mas so he will just have to plan a way of coping so that we don't get penalised off the park. I'm sure they will be on to the referee all week about it and trying to find out what they can/can't do and pointing out stuff they feel the french get away with. I'm sure they will also be on to the ref about sealing off at the breakdown, I felt the french got away with it a lot at the weekend.

roddersm wrote:I'll bet you a fiver we start with TOL and Sexton with Murray and ROG on the bench

Which will probably cost us the game but we must stick to ze plan....

You could well be right. My team is who I would play rather than trying to 2nd guess DK

13.08 and no sign of a team announcement; must be Thursday after all.

Notch wrote:13.08 and no sign of a team announcement; must be Thursday after all.

I think it's tomorrow (Wednesday) Connacht game and France game announced together

Makes sense.

Notch wrote:13.08 and no sign of a team announcement; must be Thursday after all.

I'm fairly sure I heard that both teams will be announced on wednesday. There was never going to be an announcement today, the french just like doing stuff early.

The French pack is class but any team with Skrela at 10 is beatable.

Kearney is out of contention this week and is only due back running the weekend - should be okish for the following week.

Murphy back in contention?

How come all we hear is about how mental lievermont is and that is selections are a joke and france play weird teams with players out of position and out of form, then anytime we play them there is a full blawdy team out, basically played the top 30 or so players in france against us, with not one mental decision.

France really don't have strength at outhalf. Their game is predicated on a general at 9. Their 10 almost becomes an extra inside centre and allows for better options left and right at the breakdown. Will France produce a true elite 10 in the next 5-6 years with such focus being on the scrumhalf to be the key decision maker on the field?

I'm quite happy that we can beat this team.

I think Kearney being out for this one is ok, give Jones, earls and Murphy (Connacht game) a go.

The whole idea about France is that they play with 3 centres really. It gives them more attacking options in away and generally the French 10 is pretty ok defensively.

Beauxis was the closest thing they got to an orthodox 10

We could of beat last weeks team too.

red_stag wrote:I'm quite happy that we can beat this team.

Thats what you said last week and the week before....if you'd just say we had no chance stag I would feel a lot better about this game....

D24tress wrote:How come all we hear is about how mental lievermont is and that is selections are a joke and france play weird teams with players out of position and out of form, then anytime we play them there is a full blawdy team out, basically played the top 30 or so players in france against us, with not one mental decision.

I think squad wise he is close to spot on, but possibly Poitrenaud (spelling) could have been included somewhere. Where the problem will usually creep up is trying to get Rougerie into the starting backline at 13, he could leave Medard on the bench, he will probably have Traille on the field with too much of the game going through him. He is also liable then to bench harryordinary instead of making him a key fixture and will be reluctant to pull the plug on Parra if he is having a howler and give Yachvilli a chance of saving a game if needed. They are all small enough decisions but can easily unsettle at team.

I'd reckon for Ireland v France:

01 Healy
02 Flannery
03 Ross
04 O'Callaghan
05 O'Connell
06 O'Brien
07 Wallace
08 Heaslip
09 Murray
10 Sexton
11 Earls
12 Darcy
13 O'Driscoll
14 Bowe
15 Jones

16 Cronin
17 Court
18 McCarthy
19 Jennings
20 O'Leary
21 O'Gara
22 Murphy

And for Connacht v Ireland :

01 Horan
02 Varley
03 Hayes
04 O'Driscoll
05 Toner
06 McLaughlin
07 Ronan
08 Henry
09 Stringer
10 Wallace
11 Fitzgerald
12 McFadden
13 Spence
14 Horgan
15 Duffy

16 Best
17 Buckley
18 Cullen
19 Leamy
20 Boss
21 Keatley
22 Duffy

roddersm wrote:

red_stag wrote:I'm quite happy that we can beat this team.

Thats what you said last week and the week before....if you'd just say we had no chance stag I would feel a lot better about this game....

You can't win them all

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I think Kearney being out for this one is ok, give Jones, earls and Murphy (Connacht game) a go.

The whole idea about France is that they play with 3 centres really. It gives them more attacking options in away and generally the French 10 is pretty ok defensively.

Beauxis was the closest thing they got to an orthodox 10

Beauxis is useless. Trinh duc is massively underrated because he doesn't kick goals. He is a good tactical kicker when he needs to be, is a good defender and has beautiful hands. He is a brilliant at running a backline and exactly what france need at 10, its a pity that yachvilli and parra aren't the best options inside him but there are a few good french nines coming through and he'll look better when he plays with him. He is quite a scary prospect considering hes only 24, I think hes 25 he a month or two. He is not a centre though and france really struggled last week when he was moved there.

On kearney, I think he was always going to be rested for this game anyway.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:

D24tress wrote:How come all we hear is about how mental lievermont is and that is selections are a joke and france play weird teams with players out of position and out of form, then anytime we play them there is a full blawdy team out, basically played the top 30 or so players in france against us, with not one mental decision.

I think squad wise he is close to spot on, but possibly Poitrenaud (spelling) could have been included somewhere. Where the problem will usually creep up is trying to get Rougerie into the starting backline at 13, he could leave Medard on the bench, he will probably have Traille on the field with too much of the game going through him. He is also liable then to bench harryordinary instead of making him a key fixture and will be reluctant to pull the plug on Parra if he is having a howler and give Yachvilli a chance of saving a game if needed. They are all small enough decisions but can easily unsettle at team.

Especially considering he was fairly spectacular at 13 for toulouse this year in the hec and has been stunning in the past at fullback it is a terrible decision. Even worse is lievermont decisons at nine, parra and yachvilli should really be about 4th and 5th choice.

Stag-

You have Duffy down twice and also pretty sure Bowe is out for this game.
Possibly the English one too apparently.

Wasn't saying Beauxis is good but he is more of an orthodox 10 than the other options for France. Who would you have ahead of Yachvilli and Parra?

Yeah think Kearney was gonna be rested for this too

We really need a win and time to show some creativity and penetration in midfield. Dont they have any backs moves any more? We used to be the top first phase scorers in world rugby. Now we seem to have lost all creativity.

Also is it possible for this team to go through 3 phases without a mistake?

Stag,

Bowe is also injured. might make the england match

red_stag wrote:I'd reckon for Ireland v France:

Spence, Horgan & Bowe are all injured. D'arcy won't get 80 so you need McFadden on the bench, as Paddy W will prob play 10 for us V Connacht.

You have Duffy twice too.

Thanks goys!!

Didn't see the Duffy twice

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Stag-

You have Duffy down twice and also pretty sure Bowe is out for this game.
Possibly the English one too apparently.

Wasn't saying Beauxis is good but he is more of an orthodox 10 than the other options for France. Who would you have ahead of Yachvilli and Parra?

Yeah think Kearney was gonna be rested for this too

Mainly doussain, who I know is only 20, but he is pure class and finished the season ahead of kelleher. He is built like a tank, can play 10 as well so his kicking is top class.

Sebastien Tillous-Borde, but he can't kick goals so won't be picked.
And julien dupuy.