Ireland V France

corny

Crusaderjim wrote:

Right I’ve often been annoyed by his selections but never really pived me as he seemed to get away with it. Possibly cos all his key players were on form. He’s done well up to this point but it was only a matter of time until he was going to get fecked over due to the fact he never bothered playing the reserves. Whats good for the All-Blacks is good enough for me.

Trimble. Not international quality. Eddie persists with this guy. He might be good in a few years time but he makes the wrong decisions. CONSTANTLY!

Flannery. Should have been in since Argentina. Darts as good as Best. Way better around the pitch and the scrimmaging wont matter vs France as we’re going to be losing that battle anyway.

Reddan. About time. Though Stringer shouldn’t be the scape goat though.

Replacing Murphy with Gavin ‘Jack of all trades master of absolutely none’ Duffy is an Agatha Christie. Ridiculous. If I was Murphy I would retire from International rugby right now. The only thing I can think of is to put pressure on Darce and Dric.

He should also get rid of O’Kelly from the bench…Why? Cos he never F&cking uses him, bring in Quinlan.

Best for Easterby. Obvious enough. The unseen work that he does is very much unseen now. We’re losing it at the breakdown cos he’s not getting there. Also due to his stupid scrum hat.

Carney. Where is Carney?? Impact Eddie, Impact. It’s what the bench is for!!!!!


Rant over. TBC after the French game.

I couldn't agree more. Our back row has to be a huge concern, has been for the last 4 games. They've all been anonymous. Trying to play a wide expansive game with forwards out on the wing is fine if you have a good mobile back row but we couldn't string 3 phases together. Easterbys inclusion baffles me quite frankly. Surely he doesn't bring more to the table than Best or Quinlan or even Keith Gleeson sitting at home!

Our backs don't matter for me because unless our forwards really step up to the mark they won't see the ball. The Georgians had 3 quarters of posession imagine what the French will have!

dc69

zabbo wrote:

I was referring to monaghanbiffo eloquently labelling both myself and Gavin Duffy as 'gimps' - well played there mate.

I do love the rugby forum sweeping statements

well gavin duffy is ****e and you do seem like a bit of a sarcastic gimp,so id say he summed it up well;)

RuggieBear

dc69 wrote:

well gavin duffy is ****e and you do seem like a bit of a sarcastic gimp,so id say he summed it up well;)

banned for personal abuse

Homer J Simpson

The loss of Best at hooker is a huge loss. Al though I feel Flannery will give a better performance, Frankie Sheehan as a replacement is a huge worry. Frankie hasnt had too much game time over the past few weeks.

I would've preferred to see Stringer on the bench as opposed to Boss. I feel that Stringer's wealth of experience would've made him a superb impact sub to have despite his recent poor performance. Let us not write off a player who have saved Ireland many times during his career.

I still feel Ireland will just pip France to it. I reckon the occasion will get to France and they will freeze on the night.

ALH-06

France will win

jackal wrote:

We are going to get our pants well and truly pulled down by France this time.

Its the usual Irish menatality. Beat England a couple of times and we think we can beat the world.

Four more years of this? Bah!

Here's another 'usual Irish mentality' for ya: "Yeah EOS is **** and we're defo gonna lose against France and theres no point even watching the match as we're going to get our pants pulled down well and truly and jayzus I can't believe we're gonna lose by over 20 points I reckon and this Irish team is totally **** and its just become a terrible team overnight and the 6N was ages ago and its a totally different team and if I were EOS I'd make loadsa changes that would totally work... etc.

Not aiming this all at you now jackal - just a general rant!

Come on lads a bit of faith and confidence. Getting tired of all this pessimism! I'm quietly confident Ireland will up their game massively on Friday. And if not, then we can criticise...

Crash

France will win

Watching a replay of the press conference last night on setanta, couple of things struck me:

firstly, Eddie talking about turnovers have been a hard point for us.

Makes you wonder what the hell gameplans being played then, that has 0 irish men committed to a ruck most of the time.

and secondly, Eddie finally properly laid out his substitution plan.

Apparently you only sub a player if :
1)they're injured
2)You're doing well and you want some fresh legs
3)you're so far ahead you want to give them a run.

Notice a complete lack of "you're doing badly and need a change" in there. Interesting to hear him actually say it out loud, its always been how i've seen eddie's sub policy, but never heard him say it.

SheroN

There's some people here who should send in their CVs to the IRFU. They could do a better job than EOS. :rolleyes:

People seem to have very short memories. The man (with a squad of 17/18 capable players) got Ireland to a missed tackle away from winning the grand slam.

My only major problem with what EOS has done is that Stringer should have been dropped ages ago. He hasn't played well since Munster won the Heineken cup.

randomname2005

ALH-06 wrote:

Come on lads a bit of faith and confidence. Getting tired of all this pessimism! I'm quietly confident Ireland will up their game massively on Friday. And if not, then we can criticise...

That is what people have been saying for the past couple of weeks. Bad performances against Scotland and Italy - sure its only the warm up matches, the players just dont want to get injured, we are holding things back so our opponents cant see our playbook, etc. etc. (Do we even have a playbook???)

Then we hit the real thing, and we play crap against Namibia. Georgia were up next. The Irish team saw what Georgia did to the Pumas and how close they ran them, and if they ever had an incentive to raise their game it was after the Namibian performance. But they didn't. They had another poor display. How many poor performances do we let them have before we criticise them?

With professionalism comes a certain responsibility. They are getting well paid and must accept criticism when its due, and IMHO its due now. If you work in a paid job and dont perform your duties well, you will be sacked/not have your contract renewed etc. When it comes to sport, players who are not playing well on a consistent basis (everyone has off days) should be dropped.

R

dub_skav

Here's another 'usual Irish mentality' for ya: "Yeah EOS is **** and we're defo gonna lose against France and theres no point even watching the match as we're going to get our pants pulled down well and truly and jayzus I can't believe we're gonna lose by over 20 points I reckon and this Irish team is totally **** and its just become a terrible team overnight and the 6N was ages ago and its a totally different team and if I were EOS I'd make loadsa changes that would totally work... etc.

I don't think there's a wholly negative attitude, I think the attitude mainly is that Eddie is rubbish and has been found out a number of times.
It's still a good team, the 6 nations showed how good we are and I hope that the lads can get themselves up to win the game. I will be supporting and cheering them on, however, I believe that any success will have little to do with Eddie.

randomname2005

SheroN wrote:

People seem to have very short memories. The man (with a squad of 17/18 capable players) got Ireland to a missed tackle away from winning the grand slam.

My only major problem with what EOS has done is that Stringer should have been dropped ages ago. He hasn't played well since Munster won the Heineken cup.

Yes, one tackle away from a grand slam, but what has happened then? We were very close to beating France, one of the top teams in the world, without two of our so-called pivotal players. Now they are back we cant beat some of the lowest ranking teams in the tournament? The reason people think they can do a better job than EOS is because they dont have a 'form is temporary, selection is permanent' philosophy.

I think you are summing up people's problems with EOS very nicely - he doesnt drop people who are not in form!!!!!

dub_skav

There's some people here who should send in their CVs to the IRFU. They could do a better job than EOS.

SheroN, I think it should be CV time at the IRFU. Not necessarily people with the weighty experience of sounding off on a message board. But the IRFU should not have extended the contract of a man who has not proved himself worthy of another 4 years

dan719

France will win

karmabass wrote:

The three Bests, Ferris, Wallace, Boss and Trimble
VS
John Hayes. Paul O'Connell.


Oh how I'd love to see this

This Ireland team is shagged, they just dont have a WC mentality.

Eh if it's Munster v Ulster it would be more

the three bests
Vs
Quinlan, Leamy, Hayes, Flannery, POC, DOC....

no point including backs.

Even Neil Best isn't that much of a legend.

gucci

my 2 cents,
think easterby and o'callaghan are blessed to be in the starting line-up once again. i think against france o'callaghan could be liable for a dodgy penalty at a crucial stage if we're still touch with them!!

hope the gamble on reddan pays off, if it dosnt he could be made the fall guy for the hole world cup (not much pressure there!)
hopefully the scrum will hold up with flannery in there.

its gonna take a performance out of this world to beat the french in paris, regardless of our recent form etc, the crowd , the ref everything will be against us. I would love a huge performance by the ireland team in this one.....just dont know where its gonna come from judging by the last few games

Crusaderjim

&#231 wrote: »

and secondly, Eddie finally properly laid out his substitution plan.

Apparently you only sub a player if :
1)they're injured
2)You're doing well and you want some fresh legs
3)you're so far ahead you want to give them a run.

Notice a complete lack of "you're doing badly and need a change" in there. Interesting to hear him actually say it out loud, its always been how i've seen eddie's sub policy, but never heard him say it.

I was watching that last night too and I actually thought he said that about doing well and wanting fresh legs but assumed he said playing badly. I mean after injuries surely that is what your bench is for?

I'm trying not to be pessimistic as I desperately want us to do well this time around but there are too many problems cropping up that realistically shouldnt even be considered. The two main problems seem to be the breakdown and unforced handling errors. The first one can be sorted out but probably by sacrificing extra pod runners to commit to the ruck & Breakdown which will mean higher work rates around the pitch and unfortunately the team seemed lethargic in the first two games so it does not bode well.

The majority of handling errors, especially unforced ones come about due to rushed ball and are a knock-on (Excuse the pun!) effect of not getting to the breakdown quickly enough. The pack need to up their game and hopefully present better ball to Reddan who will keep the french honest around the fringes. Of course there are other problems but for the majority rugby is a simple game and things like this really do effect patterns. This team should have the confidence to pull themselves out of this, so lets hope its not too late!!!!

gosplan

France will thump Ireland back to the famine

dub_skav wrote:

It's still a good team, the 6 nations showed how good we are

Am I the only person who thinks we've been flattered by a poor six nations over the last couple of years?

We've been stuck firmly behind a mediocre France and in front of a poor England, Scotland and Wales.

jmayo

gosplan wrote:

Am I the only person who thinks we've been flattered by a poor six nations over the last couple of years?

We've been stuck firmly behind a mediocre France and in front of a poor England, Scotland and Wales.

Agree whole heartly.
How good are France really, they can have very good days but they have consitency issues ?
1987 was probably their best chance but got to final and then met the all powerful All Blacks, collapsed against England last WC.
They have a coach that sometimes makes baffling decisions.

If you really look at this WC, the winner will probably come from either NZ or SA with Australia, France and even Argentina coming in after that.
France are really included in there because of home advantage.
Are we deluding ourselves over last few years, sure we have some good players but we have a weak scrum, limited half backs with no back up in the squad for some major positions.

Saying we can beat anyone on our day is cr**. We beat sub standard SA team and Aussie team that not interested. They have failed to put away NZ on a couple of ocassions, yes we ran them closer but no cigar.

Saying all that, we should at least be able to put away third tier teams with ease and not make them look like first rate teams.
Here's hoping on Firday, they play one of the "one off" great games they can pull out every now and again.

jackal

Scootay wrote:

You might want to check your figures. We beat them in 2000, 2001 and 2003. That's 3 times in 8 years. With a bit of luck it'll be 4 times after Friday.

In France?

dub_skav

gosplan wrote:

Am I the only person who thinks we've been flattered by a poor six nations over the last couple of years?

You're not the only one, certainly Engalnd and France have not reached their previous heights in a few years.
But the result against France showed that these players were on a par with effectively the same French team as now, so it is possible that we could beat them on Friday.
The point I was trying to make is that the criticism of the Irish setup is not naysaying, in my personal case it is criticsim of Eddie O'Sullivan (something I have been doing since his appointment).
That said, I still believe that we should hope for the best on Friday and cheer the lads on - as all supporters should.

jackal

gosplan wrote:

Am I the only person who thinks we've been flattered by a poor six nations over the last couple of years?

We've been stuck firmly behind a mediocre France and in front of a poor England, Scotland and Wales.

No I completely agree. You would swear winning the grand slam is the equivalent of the world cup or something. Its something France and England do routinely. Wales had a half decent squad, their first chance in years, and did the business in 2005 - at our expense as usual.

Ireland have been supposededly capable of beating anyone on their day, and yet all we have to show for it is a couple of triple crowns won over frankly terrible versions of the home nations teams. Lets not forget Italy beat Scotland and Wales this year - thats how poor they are. No wins against Saznar teams away in the whole time - the true mark of being capable of "Beating anyone on our day".

A good bit of talent, a complete inablility to close out a result, some bad luck, and a whole lot of hype sums up this Irish team.

Of course I will back Ireland, and get behind them this Friday, who do you think the sceptics would be backing - france? Just because people dont believe the hype doesent mean you dont support the lads, and want to see them doing their absolute best - which in this group is getting out of it.

kevmy

As a previous poster has said the handling errors have been mainly due to getting extremely slow ball from the ruck and breakdown situations. By getting such glacial slow ball from the breakdown we give the opposition plenty of time to get their defence in order, this in turn puts more pressure on ROG and the outside backs.

So has Eddie solved the problem (or least attempted to by bringing in Reddan)? Well yes and no. While Stringer has been very poor at getting the ball out quickly in the last few games (and if Stringer is not getting fast, decent ball out then there isn't really a point in having him in the team - it's supposed to be his strength) it's not entirely his fault. The forwards have to take some of the blame to for not being ontop of the ball at breakdown, backrow especially.

This has also had a knock-on effect on BOD in that he is essentially being playing as a sub backrower for long periods. I remember him twice getting turnover ball towards the end of the Georgia game. Surely not his main job!!

So where does this leave us for the French game? Well hoping that Reddan is in good form and is not phased by the prospect of being thrown in at such a crucial stage. Hoping the back row get their act together. Hoping Eddie will be willing to make changes in the match if changes need to be made.

Still I suppose at least we still have hope

madds

Heard that Pelous is definitely out with knee problems, and that Ibanez and Harinordoquy are rated as doubtful? Would be nice to see those 3 out.

I'm praying that POC hits Chabal from the kick-off like the incident we had in Thomond a couple of seasons back, dumps him on ar$e, Ireland drive over, force a penalty, whatever, and that's the trigger for this Irish team to finally waken up at this WC.

Not as simple as that but I've a sneaking suspicion we might get a good performance from this Irish side on Friday evening. Depends on which French side turns up mind.

jameshayes

France will win

My theory is (i've said it from the end of the nam game) that Eddie is leading the French into a false sense of security... He knows that the French don’t do well when they are surprised(as in the opening game) We will come of of the traps on Friday and you will see a completely different team, we will hit hard, kick a few high balls and get 2 early tries. 1 from Trimble and one from Horgan. And maybe a few intelligent line outs the final score will be 34-16 to Ireland.

If i'm wrong - please shoot me.

monaghanbiffo

France will win

jameshayes wrote:

My theory is (i've said it from the end of the nam game) that Eddie is leading the French into a false sense of security... He knows that the French don’t do well when they are surprised(as in the opening game) We will come of of the traps on Friday and you will see a completely different team, we will hit hard, kick a few high balls and get 2 early tries. 1 from Trimble and one from Horgan. And maybe a few intelligent line outs the final score will be 34-16 to Ireland.

If i'm wrong - please shoot me.

I'M OFF TO PADDYPOWER NOW AND IF YOUR WRONG I WILL SHOOT YOU

jameshayes

France will win

Trimble, Horgan and Reddan to score trys... rest are conversions & pen's





*crosses fingers*

Will

I hope to jaysus we beat the french, ive been in france for the past year and the french have beaten us everytime. and in typical fashion they rub it in my nose, i will be out in Lyon on Friday night with my jersey and my flag draped around me. The only irish guy in the place and hopefully we will be successful.

Im very doubtful because the last 2 games have been quite poor. But gotta soldier on and hope that the guys get their asses in gear

jameshayes

France will win

Betfair - Multi bet;

Ireland to beat France
Samoa to beat England

5 euro bet = 136 euro win.

Possible.


/edit/ just placed my 5euro bet.

SpAcEd OuT

jameshayes wrote:

My theory is (i've said it from the end of the nam game) that Eddie is leading the French into a false sense of security... He knows that the French don’t do well when they are surprised(as in the opening game) We will come of of the traps on Friday and you will see a completely different team, we will hit hard, kick a few high balls and get 2 early tries. 1 from Trimble and one from Horgan. And maybe a few intelligent line outs the final score will be 34-16 to Ireland.

If i'm wrong - please shoot me.

Are you suicidal because you are most certainly wrong.

jameshayes

France will win

If i'm wrong - I'll happly say I was wrong, but IF i'm right, will you tell me i'm right?

darkman2

Quote from Brent Pope on RTE

The thing is, funnily enough, I have a gut feeling that Ireland will actually beat France: that things might actually magically take off and they'll win. Although it looks unlikely, I had a feeling before the game against England at Croke Park that they might put thirty or forty points on England and thrash them, and I have the same sort of gut feeling this time around.

I have to say, and with little reason admittedly, that I actually agree with him and that Ireland will turn it on for the big games. Dont know why but thats my gut feeling anway. I think we will beat France.:)

bugler

France will thump Ireland back to the famine

Popey can be something of an Oracle, he has shown himself far better at predicting results than Hook or Conor O'Shea.

Recently, he picked England to beat France in the 6N...which was definitely going against the grain.

G'wan Popey, you better be right this time!

SpAcEd OuT

jameshayes wrote:

If i'm wrong - I'll happly say I was wrong, but IF i'm right, will you tell me i'm right?

If your right I will refer to you on these forums as Lord James for the rest of my posting career, will make a thread praising you and lambusting myself and will even go as far as never disagreeing with you again.

But you are definitely wrong as much as I want to believe we can beat France.

dan719

France will win

kevmy wrote:

As a previous poster has said the handling errors have been mainly due to getting extremely slow ball from the ruck and breakdown situations. By getting such glacial slow ball from the breakdown we give the opposition plenty of time to get their defence in order, this in turn puts more pressure on ROG and the outside backs.

So has Eddie solved the problem (or least attempted to by bringing in Reddan)? Well yes and no. While Stringer has been very poor at getting the ball out quickly in the last few games (and if Stringer is not getting fast, decent ball out then there isn't really a point in having him in the team - it's supposed to be his strength) it's not entirely his fault. The forwards have to take some of the blame to for not being ontop of the ball at breakdown, backrow especially.

This has also had a knock-on effect on BOD in that he is essentially being playing as a sub backrower for long periods. I remember him twice getting turnover ball towards the end of the Georgia game. Surely not his main job!!

So where does this leave us for the French game? Well hoping that Reddan is in good form and is not phased by the prospect of being thrown in at such a crucial stage. Hoping the back row get their act together. Hoping Eddie will be willing to make changes in the match if changes need to be made.

Still I suppose at least we still have hope

I agree with your point about the backrow so surely we should have Quinlan and Best in there? I mean Best brings huge agression to the breakdown and imho Easterby is just not producing it. To think that Quinlan- who is widely known as an absolute maniac(in a good way)- can not even make the squad when we complain of a lack of passion is ridiculous.

jameshayes

France will win

SpAcEd OuT wrote:

If your right I will refer to you on these forums as Lord James for the rest of my posting career, will make a thread praising you and lambusting myself and will even go as far as never disagreeing with you again.

But you are definitely wrong as much as I want to believe we can beat France.

Sounds like a plan!

kevmy

dan719 wrote:

I agree with your point about the backrow so surely we should have Quinlan and Best in there? I mean Best brings huge agression to the breakdown and imho Easterby is just not producing it. To think that Quinlan- who is widely known as an absolute maniac(in a good way)- can not even make the squad when we complain of a lack of passion is ridiculous.

Sure I've been calling for Easterby to be dropped since the 6N. All my mates refer to him as "my friend Easterby" every time he touches the ball (about twice a game). Best starting and Quinlan on the bench would be my choice but sure be thankful of small mercies like Flannery in at hooker and Reddan in at scrum half

shrapnel222

France will thump Ireland back to the famine

just to let you know laporte has now rescheduled the team annoucement till tomorrow. my god does he drive me crazy!!!

Erin Go Brath

I would expect Ireland to play out of their skins on Friday night. Well think about it folks:

1) Ireland have been shocking so far in the tournament. Theyve been lambasted by everyone for underperforming, for been chokers when it comes down to it etc etc. This has to spur them on.

2) We are due to give France a beating one of these days. They ROBBED us in the 6 Ns, beat us in the last WC. Now is time for sweet revenge. If the boys havent the motivation for putting in a barnstorming 80 now above any other time they should just give it up and take up knitting!

I personally think Ireland have overrated the minnows. We havent seen the REAL IRELAND so far in this tournament. Were goin to see it on Friday. I predict we throw the kitchen sink at them, and they being lulled into a false sense of security at Irelands shockingness so far will not know what hit them. In short, Ireland to prevail!

Wreck

I actually can't believe this selection - none of it makes any sense. However, stupid though it might seem, I have a nagging feeling our big players might come good for Friday, and things will finally click for the best team Ireland has ever (and probably will ever) send to a World Cup.

Ulstermell0

France will win

i think most of it makes sense - chucking reddan in now is a risk but could pay off. trimble is a better than average international and could do the biz esp on the wing and i think hickie needed to go.

I think murphy should be on the pitch from the start! see how he does then bring gerv on if hes having problems.

glad we have flannery as a replacement for best although i rate them about equal all things considered.


best is whats needed to tear chabal a new one - although he might do that better coming on with just 30 mins to go.

not many choices regarding the rest of the pack although all of them need a kick up the arse (except maybe john hayes)

i dont knowabout anyone else but the pack seemed to be really lumbering round the pitch the whole of these last two matches - like they lacked energy or something.

we NEED quick ball to let darcy dricco and horgan do some damage. BOD got a hattrick in France in 2000 lets hope history repeats itself.
I just dont know how to call it could see any type of result depending on how both teams play.

as regaurds in fighting i really couldnt care less who would win a fight, but if the rumours were true i would be unbelievably pissed off with whoever was involved. stuff like that has a massive effect on performances!

also - i hope this no pressure is put on the refs to make sure the host nation gets thru.

COME ON BOYS WE NEED A MASSIVE PERFORMANCE ON FRIDAY !!

Stev_o

After watching the France vs Nambia game i worry.

France are going to play at a blistering pace and i honestly think we wont be able to match it in defence.


Think about it. Everyone knows that we commit something like 1 player in a ruck and then tell prop forwards to go defend midfield and wing [great idea there defence coach :rolleyes: ] France will just hit us hard with the usual suspects send it wide and wait as Clerc and Heymans cut through Horan and co defend midfield.

PLease for the love of god someone just tell them that the backs are capable of defending france midfield and that all the forwards to concentrate on fringes and the likes we will be punished for every mis match in our defence come Friday.

Lastly we can win

Again just tell the forwards to defend EVERY ruck like it was on your 5 meter line and to clean out EVERY ruck like it was on the opposition 5 meter line.

We wont win this upfront. Just prioritize quick ruck ball and let it loose on the backs and hope to god they spark magic.

Gingervitis

A major problem to be factored in is fatigue.

With very little rotation of the players, (as some would say we're forced to do, others would blame EOS), in essence the same 15 bar Strings and Hickie have played two matches on the trot, especially a bruising encounter against Georgia.

It's obvious that defending is far more draining than attacking, and that is what we were forced to do for most of the Georgia match, who incidently had 10 fresh players, and were content to run hard at us up the fringes for most of that match as well. Thus, the pack will be "knackered" relative to France, who through injury and strength in depth, have rotated and rested most of their players in the Namibia game.

Thus, unless we keep on top going on 60 mins, we are gonna get killed in the pack late on, and then all the Georden Murphys (or lack thereof) and O Driscolls in the world won't make one sh1te of a difference...

I just hope to God we can click, and keep them unsettled and on the back foot, then let them implode...other than that it's curtains...

jameshayes

France will win

Gingervitis wrote:

I just hope to God we can click, and keep them unsettled and on the back foot, then let them implode...other than that it's curtains...

I think eddies game plan is to not be on the back foot in the first place... I think we're gonna snap into action and get them on the back foot exactly like the argies did....

philstar

France will win

So what do u reckon on friday night, will irish eyes be smiling??

Ive got a feeling in my bones Ireland will pull it off.

and you guys???

shoutman

I'll be at the match and although I dont think Ireland will get destroyed I stilll cant see them winning. A lot rests on the shoulders of the Irish back row and hopefully ROG and co. Can produce their A game. It is a game we could win but on recent performances I dont see how they can turn it around.

Trojan

France will thump Ireland back to the famine

We'll lose with a slightly better performance than the last 2 games.

I hope that we get hockeyed into the next century so that EOS has no choice but resignation, but that's not going to happen.

accensi0n

france by between 10 and 20

wowy

France will thump Ireland back to the famine

Not quite back to the famine. France by 20.

Ruu_Old

France will win

Ireland to scrape through by the narrowest of margins.

derfen

France will win

Ireland to come out in blazing form from the start and dominate the first half and then hold on for the win !

Final score: Ireland 22 France 15

RuggieBear

i think we will be completely duffed up upfront and taken to the cleaners in the backs.

hope i'm completely wrong

kenco

Cant see either team winning this by more than 7 points. That said if we can keep them scoreless for the first 15-20 mins and get some points up ourselves then it is possible for them to throw a wobbly.

I think even if they get out of the blocks with a couple of early tries they will hold back and we should be able to get back to within 7.

Prediction - heart says Ireland, head says France