Wales vs France, Friday 26 Feb 8pm, Pre/During/Post Match Thread.

thomond2006

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Take off the tinted glasses Thomond Rees was gash, constantly passing down blind alleys,gave away turnovers and penalties, no threat on the break bar one quick tap. Practically threw the ball over Williams head for that short lineout move towards the end of the first half. France were putting no more then two players into each ruck and fanning out. They were wide open to pop balls and breaks around the base of the rucks yet Rees kept going blind or shoveling it to Jones no matter where he was standing. Ryle Nuggent thought he played well though? Phillips(fully fit) would have cleaned house if he had played.

Sorry that comes across as a bit of a go at you its not ment to be.

Don't worry about it, you backed up what you said.

Maybe I was being a bit nice to Rees. I thought he did OK in the circumstances, he did very well in the build up to Halfpenny's try.

Wales really need Phillips back.

ironingbored

As I said in a previous post on another thread, I do not think this is a great French team. Wales (and Kaplan) gifted them a 20 point lead tonight. Nallet playes for Castres and Pierre Bourgoin hardly trailblazing French clubs. Granted they have a great backrow despite the fact that the were blown away by McCaw, Kaino and Read in November. Bastareaud is very one -dimensional and Poitrenaud is very flaky. France may well win the slam this year and deservedly so but potential World Cup winners they are not.

Judgement Day

Aidric wrote: »

Lol, ridiculous. France were clinical and ruthless in the first half. Their defence rarely looked liked being breached. Their scrum was destroying the Welsh and they held their own in the lineout. As well as all that their offloading was a joy to watch. They came out second half with their minds already thinking they had the game won. Wales made a good start and immediately were on the upper foot. France lost Parra to the bin at a crucial period which helped Wales back in. France could have had a try late on aswell after a hack through iirc, I think it was Malziou who failed with the pick up.
To say they were poor is laughable.

Wales had already come back well before Parra's sin binning and this French team are overated - two gifted tries and they still nearly lost the game - perhaps shambolic England will bring a stop to their gallop. Better still wouldn't it be a joy if it was the Italians.

Aidric

ironingbored wrote: »

Poitrenaud is very flaky.

I think himself and Harinordoquy have been France's 2 most consistently excellent performers this six nations.

greendom

Judgement Day wrote: »

Wales had already come back well before Parra's sin binning and this French team are overated - two gifted tries and they still nearly lost the game - perhaps shambolic England will bring a stop to their gallop. Better still wouldn't it be a joy if it was the Italians.

2 gifted tries, I think that's a bit unfair on France tbh. Incredible display of defence gave Wales no where to go and forced the errors. Wales came back in the second half and the French lost their heads for a while. But that first half display was magnificent

PhatPiggins

Judgement Day wrote: »

Wales had already come back well before Parra's sin binning and this French team are overated - two gifted tries and they still nearly lost the game - perhaps shambolic England will bring a stop to their gallop. Better still wouldn't it be a joy if it was the Italians.

Over rated come on. Where do you think the so called gift tries came from? They came from the immense pressure the French were putting on the Welsh. Their defence was so good in the first half that the Welsh were forced into high risk plays. Same as the Scotland game the French could have obliterated Wales if they bothered to play in the second half.

They've won all three games by half time and peole are saying they're over rated, jeez.

Stev_o

Aidric wrote: »

Lol, ridiculous. France were clinical and ruthless in the first half. Their defence rarely looked liked being breached. Their scrum was destroying the Welsh and they held their own in the lineout. As well as all that their offloading was a joy to watch. They came out second half with their minds already thinking they had the game won. Wales made a good start and immediately were on the upper foot. France lost Parra to the bin at a crucial period which helped Wales back in. France could have had a try late on aswell after a hack through iirc, I think it was Malziou who failed with the pick up.
To say they were poor is laughable.

Which France did you prefer the one vs Ireland or the one you saw tonight. They are over-rated if they played any of the SH sides tonight instead of Wales they would of been stomped. They play a purely defensive game with no imagination or forward thinking. They went out out and let Wales play themselves out of the game and sat back and waited for the outcome.

thomond2006

PhatPiggins wrote: »

They've won all three games by half time and peole are saying they're over rated, jeez.

And in the second half they have failed to put away under-performing opposition in two games, jeez. The halftime scoreline means nothing, ask Andy Robinson.

I won't use the phrase "over-rated" yet. It's hard to know where France are at just now.

ironingbored

Aidric wrote: »

I think himself and Harinordoquy have been France's 2 most consistently excellent performers this six nations.

Have to disagree. His kicking was mediocre tonight.

Arguably, a better French team than tonight's were hammered by New Zealand in November.

daveharnett

Spore wrote: »

Fucking French cowards kicking it out on the full. Shameful ending.

The law should force teams to restart properly. Given that it doesn't, I wouldn't fault france for a second. Why on earth would they want to continue, when they had nothing to gain and everything to lose?

twinytwo wrote: »

what did parra get bined for?

After tackling a player (williams I think), while still on the ground, he interfered with the tackled player passing off the deck. Prevented quick ball in a promising situation.

twinytwo wrote: »

...he seems like a right cocky...

He's a disagreeable one allright.

Johnny Utah

wtf was lee byrne thinking?

Maybe he was kicking the ball to his mate behind the goal?

PhatPiggins

Stev_o wrote: »

Which France did you prefer the one vs Ireland or the one you saw tonight. They are over-rated if they played any of the SH sides tonight instead of Wales they would of been stomped. They play a purely defensive game with no imagination or forward thinking. They went out out and let Wales play themselves out of the game and sat back and waited for the outcome.

Yes but they've shown they can play both styles and like all French side,club and international, they did the bare minimum to win away from home. It's all well and good to say if they played one of the top three they would have been mashed but they shown they are more then capable of lifting their game when they need to. Wales are poor and they did all that was necessary to beat them.

Fine you can call them a bit lax in not playing for the full 80 but lads does anyone on here honestly believe that they haven't got at least another two gears ?

They won a series in New Zealand in the summer, you could count on one hand the number of teams that have done that in living memory.

BTW 3 of the last 4 WC's have been won by teams playing exactly as France played tonight, as horrible as that may be.

Stev_o

PhatPiggins wrote: »

They won a series in New Zealand in the summer, you could count on one hand the number of teams that have done that in living memory.

.

They drew that series, NZ beat them the week after.

ironingbored

Johnny Utah wrote: »

wtf was lee byrne thinking?

I'm sure he'll reveal all and explain himself on Twitter.

Aidric

Stev_o wrote: »

Which France did you prefer the one vs Ireland or the one you saw tonight. They are over-rated if they played any of the SH sides tonight instead of Wales they would of been stomped. They play a purely defensive game with no imagination or forward thinking. They went out out and let Wales play themselves out of the game and sat back and waited for the outcome.

So are you agreeing with your mans assessment that France were poor tonight?

Stev_o

Aidric wrote: »

So are you agreeing with your mans assessment that France were poor tonight?

Yup because if they had of played like they did against us they would of put a cricket score on Wales.

corny

France are overrated. The Scots played terrible against them yet only lost by 9. We made something like 20 odd unforced errors and were beaten by a good not great French display. Tonight the difference was probably the very weak Welsh pack and a couple of decisive Welsh mistakes. Hook and Williams made bad decisions that's all. The famed French defence didn't force the mistakes. Suffice it say New Zealand won't be toothless in attack(Scotland), freeze on the big stage(Ireland) or gift the opposition points(Wales). Judging France as world beaters on their last 3 games flatters them IMO.

I'd agree they're a step up from the rest of us in the 6N's but best in the world or likely favs for the WC they are not.

Aidric

They were better against Ireland yes but they were far from poor tonight. Also they were at home against us, big difference.

PhatPiggins

Stev_o wrote: »

They drew that series, NZ beat them the week after.

Two test series with one win each come down to points scored. France scored more.

PhatPiggins

Sorry the guy talking about the weak Welsh pack, do SA,NZ and Ireland all have weak packs too because France dismantled all of them.

Not all errors are unforced the majority of them are down to pressure. Anyway I'll agree to disagree with the rest of you,except Aidric

daveharnett

twinytwo wrote: »

Cant understand why france took the foot off the gas. Had they kept it going at the start of the second half they would have really put them to the sword.

I thought that Wales' comeback had as much to do with Kaplan as with France to be honest. I don't think they got a single decision in their favour from 45 to 65 minutes, despite some pretty clear-cut infringements...

durkadurka wrote: »

Forward pass for the try anyone?

...that being one example (and not the most obvious imo).

I'm not suggesting bias, just a subconscious urge to 'make a game of it' perhaps?

twinytwo wrote: »

Wales did exactly what we should have been doing and kicking it behind the french defense

To be fair, that seemed to be part of our game plan too. The difference for me was that
A: Wales calmed down and went back to the game plan after half time. We continued in hail mary mode.
B: Wales were not destroyed at the breakdown in the way we were.

Digifriendly

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Two test series with one win each come down to points scored. France scored more.

Incorrect. It is regarded as 'series drawn'. Check IRB World Rugby Yearbook 2010 Pg.128!

Stev_o

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Sorry the guy talking about the weak Welsh pack, do SA,NZ and Ireland all have weak packs too because France dismantled all of them.

SA have a sh*te scrum and little else, that tour was a disastor from beginning to end though you have to admit mean ffs they only beat Italy!! NZ destroyed and i mean humiliated the French scrum in France and in fact got a try directly from one particular scrum on the 5m line more then makes up for the crap effort they made at home where France mauled them off the park.

LilOc

Rees ready Parra mission against France

Article Published: Wednesday 24 February 2010


[URL="javascript:print();"][/URL]Wales scrum-half Richie Rees believes keeping France counterpart Morgan Parra quiet could be vital if his full Test debut is to end in a home Six Nations win at the Millennium Stadium on Friday.


The 21-year-old goalkicking Parra has been in fine form both in open play and with the boot during grand slam chasers France's victories over Scotland and Ireland.


Rees, five years Parra's senior, is well aware of his opposite number's quality and said on Tuesday: "He's had an excellent start to the Six Nations, to be fair to him.


"I've looked at his last couple of games and I think he controls a lot of what the French do - he is key for them.


"Maybe I have got to try and get in his face a little bit and see where that gets us."



Rees has already seen off impressive opposition just to earn his first Test start after Wales coach Warren Gatland selected him ahead of now fit-again British and Irish Lions scrum-halves Mike Phillips and Dwayne Peel.
Cardiff Blues No 9 Rees admitted he feared the worst when the experienced duo were recalled.
....

Worked well. Plus Parra got the referees' payback for his 'cheating/unpenalised' talks...

Flair is Welsh!

corny

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Sorry the guy talking about the weak Welsh pack, do SA,NZ and Ireland all have weak packs too because France dismantled all of them.

Not all errors are unforced the majority of them are down to pressure. Anyway I'll agree to disagree with the rest of you,except Aidric

They won't do that twice to the SA's. End of year tour after a hard season for them, they had their excuses ready and in truth they did look tired.

The NZ'ers? Well they were missing McCaw, Carter and others when France beat them in NZ. Also very early in their season and they're notorious slow starters. I think they laid their marker down in Marseille when the French had absolutely no answer to them.

Again France are good but the best side in the world with an unbreakable defence and famed physicality shouldn't lose badly at home 39-12 and 5 tries to nil, with no excuses. I've seen nothing in their three 6N games so far that leads me to believe the NZ'ers wouldn't be capable of humiliating them again. They've had very little to contend with so far this 6N.

jayteecork

anyone have a link to highlights?

I tried using a proxy on the BBC site but they seemed to have gotten wise and it didn't work.

darrenh

Digifriendly wrote: »

Incorrect. It is regarded as 'series drawn'. Check IRB World Rugby Yearbook 2010 Pg.128!

I was at the second game and they regarded it as series lost. France won a trophy as well for scoring more points. Holy war on the radio stations about them losing on points.

Digifriendly

darrenh wrote: »

I was at the second game and they regarded it as series lost. France won a trophy as well for scoring more points. Holy war on the radio stations about them losing on points.

Apologies for getting this wrong. Just wonder why historical records have it as 'series drawn'?

PhatPiggins

Digifriendly wrote: »

Apologies for getting this wrong. Just wonder why historical records have it as 'series drawn'?

I was going on the trophy presentation and the commentators saying that France won on points difference.

By the way I really hate when people start a post with "Incorrect" you sound like that primary teacher we all had how used to lecture the kids and thought what he was saying was word of law. A few people do it and I think its the height of ignorance.

No personal offence intended.

BoarHunter

I read a lot of silly talks on this thread this morning.

so all of a sudden France are over rated .... Ireland gave them the victory 2 weeks ago..... bla bla bla....

May i remind you how ireland won at the millenium last year ?

You don't go there to impose your game. Wales said they would run at France and France prepared themselves. they offered a strong pressure and kept the ball slow.

All Wales wanted was to have pace and speed- would have been a mistake to give them that.

France are a team of very young players, who arrived at half time in the dressing room at half time with 20 points positive margin.... they started talking and they lost their composure.

they didn't deal with that cushion properly and instead of keeping the pressure they left Wales coming.... with the help of Mr Kaplan ( a forward pass that you could have seen from the moon and that the Welsh TV realisation had to replay the slow motion from the back of the post only not to show the obvious ).

When under pressure i found that Parra- TrinhDuc were too soft to put their side back on track and only when michalak came in that Wales had no momentum no more ...

Sometimes it is little details that makes the difference.

I hope Ireland will do better than that against Wales at home with more than half of the team that had 4-5 days to prepare the match cos they were called to cover injuries .... :pac:

Remember you saw a pretty much B team for France, they had very little time to prepare for this.

We will see with what i saw 2 weeks ago and last night i wouldn't swear that ireland are better than Wales.

billybigunz

I'm going to call bull**** on this France being awesome talk.

They didn't impose themselves offensively on Wales in any way during that match. A superb defense won the game for them effectively after 40 minutes until Wales realised that clever kicks can nullify a well ordered rush defence.

Ireland gave them the game in a 20 minute period with sin bins and penalties.

They are definitely the better team than both Wales and Ireland but not by huge amounts.

BoarHunter

billybigunz wrote: »

I'm going to call bull**** on this France being awesome talk.

They didn't impose themselves offensively on Wales in any way during that match. A superb defense won the game for them effectively after 40 minutes until Wales realised that clever kicks can nullify a well ordered rush defence.

Ireland gave them the game in a 20 minute period with sin bins and penalties.

They are definitely the better team than both Wales and Ireland but not by huge amounts.

Tell me one thing . Why did you conceed a YC ? if it's not being under pressure.

you can call that giving the game. i call it being outplayed. the foul was made to avoid conceeding 7 points ... which they did anyway eventually.

billybigunz

BoarHunter wrote: »

Tell me one thing . Why did you conceed a YC ? if it's not being under pressure.

you can call that giving the game. i call it being outplayed. the foul was made to avoid conceeding 7 points ... which they did anyway eventually.

Yeah they were under pressure but there was no definite try on. The card cost ten points. Chasing 10 points in France with a good French side? Game over.

Digifriendly

BoarHunter wrote: »

Remember you saw a pretty much B team for France, they had very little time to prepare for this.

Can you explain this as I don't understand?

BoarHunter

Digifriendly wrote: »

Can you explain this as I don't understand?

France have 14 injuries 1 banned. many players were called during the last week to prepare the match.

not ideal to prepare a tough away international match

Steffano2002

Poor display by France in the second half... I knew they wouldn't turn up after half-time. Did exactly the same in Paris 3 years ago (and 4 years ago against engerland)... :rolleyes:

As for all the "over-rated" opinions out there lads, let's not forget you got trashed 2 weeks ago because you were WAY over-rated yourselves. If we're over-rated now, what does that say about the Irish team up to 2 weeks ago?

Brilliant win today though! I love it when engerland lose!

billybigunz

If we're over-rated now, what does that say about the Irish team up to 2 weeks ago?

France were 2/1 favs to win that game so Ireland weren't over-rated.

Co45

Steffano2002 wrote: »

Poor display by France in the second half... I knew they wouldn't turn up after half-time. Did exactly the same in Paris 3 years ago (and 4 years ago against engerland)... :rolleyes:

As for all the "over-rated" opinions out there lads, let's not forget you got trashed 2 weeks ago because you were WAY over-rated yourselves. If we're over-rated now, what does that say about the Irish team up to 2 weeks ago?

Brilliant win today though! I love it when engerland lose!

Ireland weren't overrated. All the bookies and Irish pundits had France as favourites. Some people said we may sneak a victory but thats as far as it went.

Judgement Day

Steffano2002 wrote: »

Poor display by France in the second half... I knew they wouldn't turn up after half-time. Did exactly the same in Paris 3 years ago (and 4 years ago against engerland)... :rolleyes:

As for all the "over-rated" opinions out there lads, let's not forget you got trashed 2 weeks ago because you were WAY over-rated yourselves. If we're over-rated now, what does that say about the Irish team up to 2 weeks ago?

Brilliant win today though! I love it when engerland lose!

Guess you're going to be very sad on March 20th so...!!:D

chimchimney

i thought the french half backs showed their inexperience yesterday. they switched off in the second half with dropped balls, loose kicking, and indiscipline.

i thought basteraud was poor. not sure where he was mentally last night (maybe in his hotel room tackling his wardrobe) but his head was not in the millenium stadium. he threw away the ball, gave poor passes, missed a tackle on a scrum half, and was rightly taken off on the hour mark.

the grand slam is surely in the bag now for france, but the jury is out till the summer on whether they can mix it with the SH teams.

profitius

Theres alot of tactics involved. France won the tactical battle against Ireland hands down. Against Wales, the Welsh started to kick in behind them in the second half and suddenly they were cutting the French open.


They'll have to play England yet and the English pack will match them physically so that could be an interesting game.

anonymous_joe

Steffano2002 wrote: »

Poor display by France in the second half... I knew they wouldn't turn up after half-time. Did exactly the same in Paris 3 years ago (and 4 years ago against engerland)... :rolleyes:

As for all the "over-rated" opinions out there lads, let's not forget you got trashed 2 weeks ago because you were WAY over-rated yourselves. If we're over-rated now, what does that say about the Irish team up to 2 weeks ago?

Brilliant win today though! I love it when engerland lose!

France were realistically favourites.

Very few of their points came from French play, quite like us against England yesterday.

BoarHunter

and once again The whole of Ireland are going to shout FOR England Guys where is your pride ? :pac:

Judgement Day

BoarHunter wrote: »

and once again The whole of Ireland are going to shout FOR England Guys where is your pride ? :pac:

I doubt that as most people here are ABEs but not me - I'll be dancing on the counter as Jonny Wilkinson slots over the winning points. Remember Hastings!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ5tHgET4N4

Steffano2002

Judgement Day wrote: »

Guess you're going to be very sad on March 20th so...!!:D

I won't! Because I won't get to see the match as I'm flying abroad to go on holidays so I'll be happy either way! :P

Steffano2002

BoarHunter wrote: »

and once again The whole of Ireland are going to shout FOR England Guys where is your pride ? :pac:

That's what annoys me the most... You'll never see a French person cheering engerland on I tell you! No matter what!

2040

I will never shout for England. Never.

PhatPiggins

Steffano2002 wrote: »

That's what annoys me the most... You'll never see a French person cheering engerland on I tell you! No matter what!

The French dont bother me in the slightest in rugby terms. They usually play an extremely entertaining brand of rugby. The only reason I'll be cheering for England is that we're still in the running for the championship.

Cant say I dislike any team in the 6N's bar Wales when they're coming off Grand Slams.

BoarHunter

PhatPiggins wrote: »

The French dont bother me in the slightest in rugby terms. They usually play an extremely entertaining brand of rugby. The only reason I'll be cheering for England is that we're still in the running for the championship.

Cant say I dislike any team in the 6N's bar Wales when they're coming off Grand Slams.

Chances for ireland are very slim tbh. This will be depending on the result of the France - Italy match. If we make a difference of 20 + then we will have pretty much the championship in the bag no matter what happen against England. I don't see them trashing us in Paris. ( they might beat us harshly though )

corny

BoarHunter wrote: »

Chances for ireland are very slim tbh. This will be depending on the result of the France - Italy match. If we make a difference of 20 + then we will have pretty much the championship in the bag no matter what happen against England. I don't see them trashing us in Paris. ( they might beat us harshly though )

We could beat the Scots and Welsh by 50! Its not all about France you know.:D