Six Nations – Round Three
After a week’s break the 6N gets under way on Saturday.
Fixtures:
Saturday 12 April:
France v Wales, Stade Amédée-Domenech, Brive; KO 12.45 BST
Ireland v England, Musgrave Park, Cork; KO 16.45 BST
Sunday 13 April
Scotland v Italy, The Hive, Edinburgh; 15.00 BST
France v Wales – Keep your chin up
Teams:
France
1 Brosseau 2 Bigot 3 Bernadou 4 M. Feleu (co-captain) 5 Fall Raclot 6 Escudero 7 Okemba 8 T. Feleu 9 Bourdon Sansus 10 Arbez 11 Boulard 12 Amédée 13 M. Ménager (co-captain) 14 Arbey 15 Bourgeois
16 Riffonneau 17 Mwayembe 18 Khalafaoui 19 Zago 20 Bertoumieu 21 Champon 22 Bordes 23 Queyroi
Wales
1 G. Pyrs 2 Philllips 3 Scoble 4 Fleming 5 Crabb 6 K. Wlliams 7 Lewis 8 Evans 9 Bevan 10 Powell 11 Cox 12 Keight 13 H. Jones (captain) 14 Neumann 15 Joyce
16 K. Jones 17 M. Davies 18 Rose 19 John 20 A. Pyrs 21 King 22 S. Jones 23 Metcalfe
Sean Lynn has his work cut out drawing up a game-plan to hold French ambition in check. He has pitched his team’s chances modestly.
Wales will need far more cohesion and penetration in the backs to have a chance of breaking down a solid French defence. That in turn requires forward dominance that is at best partial this season. It doesn’t help that Alex Callender and Alisha Butchers remain on the injured list.
Cymru really must sort their line-out, the throw in particular. It’s such a lucrative source of possession and points, but remains an ongoing weakness.
The No 10 dilemma (George or Powell?) is solved by a sad ankle injury to Lleucu George. In comes Courtney Keight to the No 12 shirt. Another new disposition of the backs won’t help their cohesion.
The French squad shows a 6:2 split on the bench, though it’s hard to see why that’s thought necessary. The reserve backs play 9 and 10, so any unwanted injury will cause some juggling.
We’ll see whether les Bleues can at last put a heap of points on less gifted opponents. I fear it’s damage limitation time for the visitors.
Ireland v England – Playing to win
Teams:
Ireland
1 O’Dowd 2 N. Jones 3 Djougang 4 Tuite 5 Wall 6 Hogan 7 King 8 Wafer 9 Lane 10 O’Brien 11 Costigan (captain) 12 Higgins 13 Dalton 14 McGann 15 Flood
16 Moloney 17 McCarthy 18 Haney 19 Campbell 20 Moore 21 Reilly 22 Fowley 23 Elmes Kinlan
England
1 Botterman 2 Atkin-Davies 3 Muir 4 Talling 5 Ward 6 Aldcroft (captain) 7 Kabeya 8 Matthews 9 Hunt 10 Harrison 11 Breach 12 Heard 13 Jones 14 Dow 15 Kildunne
16 Cokayne 17 Clifford 18 Bern 19 Galligan 20 Feaunati 21 L. Packer 22 Aitchiso
From his choice of starting Fifteen you might think John Mitchell is rather keen on winning this game.
Experiments have been thrown in the bin; no new faces, very few surprises.
It is noteworthy that he prefers keeping his captain at blind-side and Morwenna Talling standing in for her alongside Abbie Ward. With Alex Matthews returning to the strength, Maddie Feaunati is reduced to the bench. There is no room for Marlie Packer here.
No change out behind, which means that Holly Aitchison has to wait her turn a second time.
One minor concern is the average age of the back seven, 28.4. There have been fine back- combinations in the past for England, but few to equal the merits of this outfit. The trouble is, they can’t go on for ever.
Abby Dow becomes the latest Red Rose to reach 50 caps. Many congratulations to her.
The Irish record has been encouraging. They went down by only 12 points to France in Belfast, then swept the Azzurre away. That demolition was the best launching-pad for a tussle against the overwhelming favourites who put an unfortunate 88 points on them last year.
Now they have the advantage of a home crowd in support, but Virgin Media Park (ex-Musgrave Park), is no longer the citadel it used to be in Munster’s glory days.
In the absence of skipper Edel McMahon, Amee-Leigh Costigan remains in charge.
It’s unlikely Dannah O’Brien will be able to find as much open space with her range of kicks as she did in Parma. We’ll see what alternatives Scott Bemand and his staff have dreamt up to disconcert a side he knows so well.
While a home victory is hardly likely, the Irish will be intent on putting on a show to confirm their advancing status. Despite their several absences (Breen, McMahon, Monaghan and Parsons, etc), they have a stronger player-pool than for ages.
And still to come: the Sunday Game
Scotland v Italy
