France ring changes for Ireland
Olivier Magne
Magne has been plying his trade in England this season
France have dropped five players for their Six Nations game against Ireland on Saturday as they try to recover from their shock defeat to Scotland.
Full-back Nicolas Brusque, centre Ludovic Valbon, flanker Remy Martin, prop Sylvain Marconnet and hooker Dimitri Szarzewski all pay the price.
Veterans Olivier Magne and Raphael Ibanez come into the pack, along with loose-head prop Olivier Milloud.
David Marty is named at centre, while Aurelien Rougerie moves on to the wing.
To make room for Rougerie, Christophe Dominici moves to full-back in place of Brusque, who, along with Szarzewski, is dropped from the 22-man squad altogether.
France, who beat Ireland 37-17 when the teams last met at the Stade de France in 2004, are keen to make amends for their 20-16 defeat to the Scots last weekend.
Dominici
Rougerie
Fritz
Marty
Heymans
Michalak
Elissalde
Milloud
Ibanez
de Villiers
Pelous
Thion
Nyanga
Magne
Bonnaire
Not their best team by a long way
Replacements: Bruno, Marconnet, Nallet, Martin, Yachvili, Boyet, Valbon.
French Team
Moderator: moderators
French Team
*** image removed by mod ***
Epaddy, Freedom Fighter
Epaddy, Freedom Fighter
Posted this on another thread too:
This French team is very beatable. Their only outstanding backrower is Nyanga and Wallace will match him for pace. Magne is off form all season and only recently back from injury while Bonnaire is a flanker playing 8, no different to Leamy and certainly didn't play any better than Leamy last weekend. The halfbacks are way off form. Michalak is still injured while Ellissade looked ponderous last weekend. Our guys may not have controlled the game as well as we would have liked but our control of position was quite good and Stringer's radar seems to be back. One of the ways we've beaten France in the past is Stringer's long ball to the centre, bypassing their backrow and our FH. Expect more of that as France's 10/12 defence will not be solid. And really, France's back three are nothing to write home about. They'd all challenge for our team and 2 would probably sneak in ahead of our guys but they're nothing special. On current form Fritz is the only guy we have to worry about.
This French team is very beatable. Their only outstanding backrower is Nyanga and Wallace will match him for pace. Magne is off form all season and only recently back from injury while Bonnaire is a flanker playing 8, no different to Leamy and certainly didn't play any better than Leamy last weekend. The halfbacks are way off form. Michalak is still injured while Ellissade looked ponderous last weekend. Our guys may not have controlled the game as well as we would have liked but our control of position was quite good and Stringer's radar seems to be back. One of the ways we've beaten France in the past is Stringer's long ball to the centre, bypassing their backrow and our FH. Expect more of that as France's 10/12 defence will not be solid. And really, France's back three are nothing to write home about. They'd all challenge for our team and 2 would probably sneak in ahead of our guys but they're nothing special. On current form Fritz is the only guy we have to worry about.
-
Flash Gordon
- Leo Cullen
- Posts: 11703
- Joined: February 7th, 2006, 3:31 pm
-
Duff Paddy
- Shane Jennings
- Posts: 5268
- Joined: January 24th, 2006, 1:46 pm
-
Flash Gordon
- Leo Cullen
- Posts: 11703
- Joined: February 7th, 2006, 3:31 pm
He's actually nearly as shoite as EOS.......and just as boring....Duff Paddy wrote:Dominici
Rougerie
Fritz
Marty
Heymans
Michalak
Elissalde
Milloud
Ibanez
de Villiers
Pelous
Thion
Nyanga
Magne
Bonnaire
Christ that is a focking lamentable French selection. Long live Laporte!
Flash ahhhh ahhh, he'll save every one of us
-
Duff Paddy
- Shane Jennings
- Posts: 5268
- Joined: January 24th, 2006, 1:46 pm
It's one of Laporte's more bizarre selections alright. Can't make sense of it. All I can think of is that he wants to focus Ireland on kicking at Dominici and has some plan to exploit that tactic but what it could be escapes me.Dominici at full back?
I really, really think we have a chance. I'm not just being optimistic. If you look at some of our play against the Italians, especially in the 2nd half, we were inches from a lot of things coming off. The two marginal forward passes were both to put Shaggy away, Bowe's inability to take D'Arcy's clever reverse pass, BOD's knock-on which would have been a linebreak for Wallace if he'd controlled it, the 4 or 5 times the Italians killed the ball when we were on the attack - really we weren't as far off as some think.
Also our maul attack and defence was decent enough and it's an area where France seem weak at the moment. Our lineout was more elaborate than it needed to be and I think we were gearing up for the French lineout which is the one lineout that has caused us problems consistently over the last 3-4 years. If we win that one area we'll go a long way to winning the game.
To be honest I'd be more worried about the amount of space we gave the Italians in defence. We need to be more aggressive and quicker to the ball carrier. Having said that we defended to the extent that the Italians kicked away most of their possession because we'd closed all avenues of attack.
One thing I will say having watched the match is that Wallace is one strong b$&%@#d. All he needs to do in defence is get his hands on the ball and it's a turnover. With the French happier to keep the ball alive rather than go to ground this could help us.
Every time I read your posts, CM, I get a little bit more excited about our chances in the game. Damn you CM!!*CM wrote:It's one of Laporte's more bizarre selections alright. Can't make sense of it. All I can think of is that he wants to focus Ireland on kicking at Dominici and has some plan to exploit that tactic but what it could be escapes me.Dominici at full back?
I really, really think we have a chance. I'm not just being optimistic. If you look at some of our play against the Italians, especially in the 2nd half, we were inches from a lot of things coming off. The two marginal forward passes were both to put Shaggy away, Bowe's inability to take D'Arcy's clever reverse pass, BOD's knock-on which would have been a linebreak for Wallace if he'd controlled it, the 4 or 5 times the Italians killed the ball when we were on the attack - really we weren't as far off as some think.
Also our maul attack and defence was decent enough and it's an area where France seem weak at the moment. Our lineout was more elaborate than it needed to be and I think we were gearing up for the French lineout which is the one lineout that has caused us problems consistently over the last 3-4 years. If we win that one area we'll go a long way to winning the game.
To be honest I'd be more worried about the amount of space we gave the Italians in defence. We need to be more aggressive and quicker to the ball carrier. Having said that we defended to the extent that the Italians kicked away most of their possession because we'd closed all avenues of attack.
One thing I will say having watched the match is that Wallace is one strong b$&%@#d. All he needs to do in defence is get his hands on the ball and it's a turnover. With the French happier to keep the ball alive rather than go to ground this could help us.
* I may edit this on Sunday.