France vs Wallabies, EOYT 2010

[Linus]

Also signals to the Frogs that he won't run, which may heap pressure on QC (Quade Cooper) or allow him to stroll through holes. A wee mind game with the defence?

 

[MickeyDR]

I'd like to see Deans give Barnes another run at the expense of Gits. I can't remember what Barnes did in order to be on the outer for so long but he organised the defence (was solid in it as well) and of course gave our best kicking performance of the year. I’m happy to put his failings in attack down to a lack of match time. At the risk of saying what a lot of people are thinking; Gits is no longer the player he once was and may never again, Barnes is still one of the youngest in the squad and needs to be allowed to develop.

 

[daz]

Hopefully Bam will not be wearing gits' headgear on saturday - did we ever find out what was up with his ear?

Foxsports commentary mentioned that Bam had a nice cauliflower thing going on, which required cutting and draining.

 

[nathan]

Just thought I'd make mention about Pocock's injury. I'm not sure if Gaggs or any of the other boys that were at twicks saw it, but in the first half I saw Ashton and someone else having a go at Pocock...almost standing on his head a good 10 metres or so back from play. They had him pinned down and weren't letting him up as they had their fun. It made me furious.

Afterwards Pocock's head was strapped, with him eventually putting on the headgear at halftime.

 

[Blue]

Just thought I'd make mention about Pocock's injury. I'm not sure if Gaggs or any of the other boys that were at twicks saw it, but in the first half I saw Ashton and someone else having a go at Pocock...almost standing on his head a good 10 metres or so back from play. They had him pinned down and weren't letting him up as they had their fun. It made me furious.

Afterwards Pocock's head was strapped, with him eventually putting on the headgear at halftime.

Rugby. As played in England.

 

[RugbyReg]

French team named:

France: 15 Jerome Porical, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Aurelien Rougerie, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Damien Traille, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Sebastien Chabal, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Jerome Schuster, 18 Jerome Thion, 19 Julien Bonnaire, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Fabrice Estebanez, 22 Marc Andreu.

 

[Blue]

French team named:

France: 15 Jerome Porical, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Aurelien Rougerie, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Damien Traille, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Sebastien Chabal, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Jerome Schuster, 18 Jerome Thion, 19 Julien Bonnaire, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Fabrice Estebanez, 22 Marc Andreu.

New selection requirement for French team: 100kg+

That's a big bunch of "people".

 

[Brumby Jack]

Foxsports commentary mentioned that Bam had a nice cauliflower thing going on, which required cutting and draining.

The footage of Wallabies training in Paris showed Pocock with tape around his head and over his ear, so expect the Giteau look alike headgear.

 

[TOCC]

The footage of Wallabies training in Paris showed Pocock with tape around his head and over his ear, so expect the Giteau look alike headgear.

must have ripped it open pretty bad... i can picture it now, he was rooming with Maafu, Pocock wakes up in the middle of the night to find Maafu 'sleep eating' on his ear

 

[Budgie]

Good strong team named by France.

As Private Frazer off Dad's Army was want to say "We're all doomed, I tell ya, doomed"

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

That is an enormous French team and one that we'll have difficulty containing. Absolutely essential that our midfield defence is watertight, which means that Ant or Barnes must play at 12.

 

[disco]

That is an enormous French team and one that we'll have difficulty containing. Absolutely essential that our midfield defence is watertight, which means that Ant or Barnes must play at 12.

Good this will be interesting to see how our undersize Robbie Deans backline will handle what will be a very physical French back division. I've been asking for bigger bodies in the Wallaby backline all year so this will be a good test.

 

[Epi]

Good this will be interesting to see how our undersize Robbie Deans backline will handle what will be a very physical French back division. I've been asking for bigger bodies in the Wallaby backline all year so this will be a good test.

I agree but who? That's the problem....

 

[en_force_er]

I agree but who? That's the problem....

Mitch Inman would of been a bloke I would have loved to see blooded this Spring tour.

This would of let us give AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) a roaming license on the wing and with Barnes tackling like a bloke several times his size at 12 things would be looking decidingly sturdier.

Oh well, I'm by no means saying Inman would of certainly been a test quality player but it would have been worth a crack.

 

[Bruce Ross]

That is an enormous French team and one that we'll have difficulty containing. Absolutely essential that our midfield defence is watertight, which means that Ant or Barnes must play at 12.

Actually, BH, it's not. The pack averages 106.4kg. Australia's pack in the England Test averaged 110.3kg and the English 112.6kg. The only place where it is huge is in midfield where the five-eighth, Damien Traille, weighs 100kg; the inside centre, Yannick Jauzion, 105kg; and the outside centre, Aurelien Rougerie, 104kg.

Let's see how our selected 10, 12 and 13 match up. Of course, the fact that we don't have any back of 100kg or more constrains our selectors' range of choices.

(I have used body weights from the epsnscrum.com site, converted to metric)

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I would be right in saying that the overall weight advantage is squarely in favour of France though? So they are comparatively big compared to us across the park.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Mitch Inman would of been a bloke I would have loved to see blooded this Spring tour.

This would of let us give AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) a roaming license on the wing and with Barnes tackling like a bloke several times his size at 12 things would be looking decidingly sturdier.

Oh well, I'm by no means saying Inman would of certainly been a test quality player but it would have been worth a crack.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think you'd be wanting to

a, chuck a bloke into a key backline position like OC because of his size (even given that he plays there for Uni and the Force)
b, chuck a bloke into a key test match on which a few test playing futures may be riding

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

my major problem with genias injury is that has been advertised to the french team?
he may as well walk out with a big target on his fkn ribs! why was this info not top secret?
everyone knows genia will play through an injury so all the frogs have to do is hit him hard in the ribs and he and the backline will suffer all game

It might also be an elaborate ruse to trick the French as well. Just like bigging up your scrum before unleashing actual running rugby on the day....

 

[Bruce Ross]

I would be right in saying that the overall weight advantage is squarely in favour of France though? So they are comparatively big compared to us across the park.

I don't think so. Their selected 15 averages 99.6kg. Our team in the England Test averaged 101.3kg.

They have a couple of relatively tiny players in the half back, Morgan Parra, at 76kg, and a winger, Alexis Palisson, at 78kg. So the French are certainly not obsessed with size; they may just opt for it where it can have the most impact.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Fair enough. Just looking at that line up, it seemed bigger than any French team I can remember seeing.