6N France v England

[Catogrande]

Teams announced:

France: Barre; Penaud, Fickou, Depoortere, Bielle-Biarrey; Ramos, Le Garrec; Baille, Marchand, Atonio, Flament, Meafou, Cros, Ollivon, Alldritt (capt).

Replacements: Mauvaka, S Taofifenua, Colombe, R Taofifenua, Roumat, Boudehent, Lucu, Moefana.

England: Furbank; Freeman, Slade, Lawrence, Daly; Ford, Mitchell; Genge, George (capt), Cole, Itoje, Martin, Chessum, Underhill, Earl.

Replacements: Dan, Marler, Stuart, Roots, Dombrandt, Care, M Smith, Tuilagi.

French team looks big, bad and dangerous all over the park. Will this be another time they gel as v Wales or another time they are away with the fairies as v Italy and Scotland? Your guess is as good as mine but I fear the former.

England looking settled but for Fey-Waboso's concussion enforced absence. and CC-S's injury. Those two however has left us with some problems, given the squad make up. Daley in for Feyi-Wabioso and Tuliagi gets shoe-horned in again on the bench and covers precisely one position, Roots comes in for CC-S on the bench. The issues I see here are that we have zero cover for the back three, save the possibility of Smith at 15 and we have zero pace in the cover for our forwards. If we lose any of the back three the shuffling needed will be very disruptive. If we lose Earl or Underhill we will lack pace in the back row. In short if we lose any one of those five of our players we may well be fucked.

Leave Daley on the bench and play perhaps Muir on the wing. Pearson in for Roots would add a bit more pace and some extra grunt. But no. In truth, much as I expected but I still manage to be disappointed.

[Dodge]

Jesus, how does Daly get in this side?

[Bovidae]

Has Ramos played much at 10 recently?

[Catogrande]

@Dodge said in 6N France V England:

Jesus, how does Daly get in this side?

Because Borthwick has done an Eddie and failed to bring sufficient cover through.

[MiketheSnow]

@Bovidae said in 6N France v England:

Has Ramos played much at 10 recently?

Last week

Went well

[Dodge]

Didn’t look very up for making tackles in the 10 channel so would expect England to target him with big ball carriers. If France are up for it which they really should be in Lyon, think England may come back to earth with a bump this weekend

[sparky]

France save their best performance of the championship for the Poms. France 16 England 3 just before Half Time.

[sparky]

Ollie Lawrence scores to bring England right back into it.

[sparky]

France 16 England 10 at the half-time break.

[Dodge]

France on fire, England grasping at shadows and getting steamrolled at the same time. Cheap try at the end keeps them in it but they need to kick better

[taniwharugby]

@Dodge England start thier own fire, 2 tries in 7 mins

[sparky]

England leading 24-16. 54 minutes gone. Noisy crowd in Lyon.

[sparky]

France score. France 21 England 24.

[sparky]

France 23 England 24.

[sparky]

What a try by France. Fickou in!

[Machpants]

LOL what a line out

[sparky]

France 28 England 24.

[Victor Meldrew]

@taniwharugby

France re-light their fire. Two tries, the second a real stunner.

This is one of the best games I've seen in ages.

[sparky]

France 30 England 24. The momentum has shifted. Great game.

[Machpants]

@sparky said in 6N France v England:

France 30 England 24. The momentum has shifted. Great game.

Line outs haven't been a fine example haha