France vs England

First topic message reminder :

As there's currently no thread:

France

France: Jaminet; Penaud, Fickou, Danty, Villiere; Ntamack, Dupont (capt); Baille, Marchand, Atonio, Woki, Willemse, Cros, Alldritt, Jelonch.

Replacements: Mauvaka, Gros, Haouas, Flament, Taofifenua, Cretin, Lucu, Ramos.

vs England

15. George Furbank

14. Freddie Steward

13. Joe Marchant

12. Henry Slade

11. Jack Nowell

10. Marcus Smith

9. Ben Youngs

1. Ellis Genge

2. Jamie George

3. Will Stuart

4. Maro Itoje

5. Nick Isiekwe

6. Courtney Lawes

7. Sam Underhill

8. Sam Simmonds

Finishers

16. Nic Dolly (Leicester Tigers, 1 cap)

17. Joe Marler

18. Kyle Sinckler

19. Ollie Chessum

20. Alex Dombrandt

21. Harry Randall

22. George Ford

23. Elliot Daly

Kick-off: 8:00pm

Referee: Jaco Peyper (SARU)

Assistant Referee 1: Mike Adamson (SRU)

Assistant Referee 2: Frank Murphy (IRFU)

TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)

Is Jones position under threat with a dire performance and defeat today...or is he safe to the WC?

All the talk I keep hearing suggests he very safe in that role....

Woodward calling an England v France semi final, that’s impossible? Brilliant punditry.

A win here would be class, let’s see what the French are made of when it counts.

If they both win or finish runner up then win the quarters they can Risca?

If its a horrendous performance geordie and even the pack goes to pot the media knives will be out. Dont think he'd be able to hang on. I expect a strong and limited performance though and him to remain.

RiscaGame wrote:Woodward calling an England v France semi final, that’s impossible? Brilliant punditry.

And LD saying England could finish 5th if they don't win ...

Looking at France coming down the tunnel...wow they're up for this!!!

Interesting start

Not sure Woki s tackle technique there was strictly legal on Genge.

Not sure about that scrum pen either

How was he not off his feet there?

Heaf wrote:Not sure about that scrum pen either

Same as the first Ireland last week. Tight head s legs too far back. But we're looking weak without Curry at the breakdown.

Heaf wrote:Not sure about that scrum pen either

And neither was the French pundit ...

Well I'd say that's probably game over already....

Hope is dissipating. No threat on the ball without Dombrandt and Curry in the back row.

This could be a long night for England!

Why did we not attack off that advantage?

Ffs.

He is in trouble!

Nowell is awful there. Awful.

Terrible decision from the tmo.

Nowell is lucky there!

I'd be well annoyed the other way.

That was a pretty terrible decision

Did Jonker give a decision in England's favour there - wow...

Oh good. We were making headway there. Pleased youngs gave them the ball back.

Poor by Furbank

Frances phase play in the forwards is relentless. The ball is being placed so far back that England can't get anywhere near it and the ruck speed accelerates as a result. Fabby.

Lol. Even Kay is doing my Ben Youngs Schtick now.

Feels like we get into a good position and then panic and make an error.

I'm not really understanding why Furbank is playing. All he's doing when reclaiming the ball (in field) is pass to genge.

What's the point in Steward going and winning the ball back when there's never anybody with him? He's going to get turned over a lot today unless we start working harder.

Nowell off in any case, hurt his wrist in that fall

England not exactly at the races right now.

That volley was comical...

Furbank was in a different postcode to the ball and only realised it very late. I rate him for Saints but he really seems to panic at international level.

So many forwards in the channel, Youngs is playing quick (or as quick as he's able) and that's twice in four phases he's had to pass around a forward who shouldn't be there.

formerly known as Sam wrote:So many forwards in the channel, Youngs is playing quick (or as quick as he's able) and that's twice in four phases he's had to pass around a forward who shouldn't be there.

Yeah he's needs hooking at half time.

Hard to see from the angles but Antonio is always on his belly.

No 7&1/2 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:So many forwards in the channel, Youngs is playing quick (or as quick as he's able) and that's twice in four phases he's had to pass around a forward who shouldn't be there.

Yeah he's needs hooking at half time.

Not really, his box kicking (bar the one shocker) has been good. It's not down to him the attack is faltering, the Randall and Smith combination has created nothing in the last two starts together so there's no magical answer on the bench. Also forwards wandering into the channel and getting in the way will hinder the happy sniping Randall more.

Around the 50 minutes mark when hopefully some of those big French forwards are starting to tire hope Randall can add some tempo.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Hard to see from the angles but Antonio is always on his belly.

You keep 23 stone upright with another 20 stone pushing from behind you.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Hard to see from the angles but Antonio is always on his belly.

The first scrum pen was 100% wrong

Ahh that's bad by slade

This tournament has shown us that change at 9 and 10 isn't some magic formula to fix the attack. It's been utter pish with Randall and Smith as well.

The England attack hasn't recovered from losing Mako and Billy's ability to get over the gain line against set defences.

For all the talk of the pack being good the performances of Ewels and Isiekwe have just reinforced how big a loss Kruis is.

I'd really like Quirke to get starts but the issue is elsewhere IMO.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:So many forwards in the channel, Youngs is playing quick (or as quick as he's able) and that's twice in four phases he's had to pass around a forward who shouldn't be there.

Yeah he's needs hooking at half time.

Not really, his box kicking (bar the one shocker) has been good. It's not down to him the attack is faltering, the Randall and Smith combination has created nothing in the last two starts together so there's no magical answer on the bench. Also forwards wandering into the channel and getting in the way will hinder the happy sniping Randall more.

Around the 50 minutes mark when hopefully some of those big French forwards are starting to tire hope Randall can add some tempo.

Yeah but also as you say he's playing as fast as he can and it's too slow.

Marchant is growing into international rugby. It's great to see.

And when is Peyper going to ping one of the French lazy runners

That was a risky kick from Smith

Oh Smith. He's so talented but that's utterly abysmal and handed them the opportunity.

The blue wave just kept coming!

BigGee wrote:That was a risky kick from Smith

Second crossfield kick he's miscued. Wasn't as blatantly on as the Steward one but he can't be that imprecise.

Surely that was a knock on?