France v. Wales (Stade de France)
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| He may be small but he is a massive loss for Wales this weekend |
As the curtain draws down on the Six Nations 2011 this will be the final match, played under a floodlit Paris. I'm really looking forward to this game and even more so if the Irish can do the business against England. Think about it, if Ireland can beat England and score a late try to take the score beyond 10 points then you would really back the Welsh here to give a mentally weakened France side a good go.
Unfortunately for Gatland, Shane Williams is ruled out with a knee injury and in his place comes in George North an 18 year old unproven winger. It baffles me why this is the case and he has left Stoddart on the bench. Moving on, a more positive inclusion is that of prop Adam Jones. Great to see him come back into the fold although it is a little premature given the injury crisis they find themselves in. That aside, I think they need him back.
Classic Lievermont again with regards to selection this week. After the embarrasing (by their standards) defeat to Italy, he has gone for a total of 5 changes. David Marty and Damien Traille will forge a new centre partnership at the expense of Rougerie and Jauzion. Brive wing Alexis Pallison is preferred to Yoann Huget. Domingo replaces Marconnet in the front row while in the backrow Chabal is replaced by Harinordoquay. I have wondered exactly why Huget has kept his place on the wing this long. French wingers are usually lethal and have a high strike rate but I haven't seen anything to suggest that Huget is upto that standard. Finally Chabal is replaced again by the obviously far better player in Imanol Harinordoquay while the inclusion of Tomas Domingo is also positive as he is one of the stand out loose heads in the competition. I would label the changes in the centre though as a sign of panic from Lievermont. For those of you who need help remembering who Alexis Pallison is, watch the video where Jerry Flannery shows him how to fly.
The two most attacking 10s go head to head in the competition (ball in hand) in this game. Trinh-Duc v. Hook is a key battle and I look forward to watching how that unfolds. Wales have a high penalty count and need to cut that out because Parra will punish them. The absence of Williams is big. He is there go to guy a lot of the time and sets up a lot of plays while he is on the pitch. France are unsure of themselves though and with the game being in Paris this is not necessarily a plus for them. They have disappointed their fans this year already and if they start to do it early on in this game then the French crowd can be quite a sour one when it wants to be. You can talk about an unreal French backlash following last weekend, but I just don't see where it is going to come from. Le Blues haven't lost 3 games in the Six Nations since 2001, I think its about to happen again.
RT Prediction: Wales
Look out for: Lievermonts head on the chopping block after all this
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