'Le Crunch'. A name that was invented by the French and English press during the early 1990s when the 2 nations spent half the time trying to wind each other up and having a scrap rather than actually playing any rugby. Nowadays, of course, the game is very different, with most players acting squeaky clean in the knowledge that your every move is under watch by the prying TV cameras – unless your name is Dylan Hartley of course, in which case you just do it anyway. That's not to say that this fixture won't be explosive. Far from it. When you have the likes of Courtney Lawes, Louis Picamoles, Manu Tuilagi and Mathieu Bastareaud lurking around, you can be sure that you'll be witnessing some colossal impacts on Saturday – in fact, 'Le Crunch' doesn't really do justice to the noise we'll hear when Tuilagi and Bastareaud collide at the weekend; they'll need to come up with a new word to describe that sound.
England will feel in a pretty good place at the moment. A convincing win over Scotland, filled with
gourmet slices of juicy rugby, was followed by mud-ridden brawl in Dublin,
where the men in white came out on top again.
Two very different performances that showed off a team capable of
playing two very different styles of rugby.
Was it perfect? Not by a long
shot. The discipline of the side against
Ireland, especially when looking after their own ball on the attack, was poor
and led to the side giving away penalty after penalty in good positions, whilst
the set piece had a mini-meltdown in the second half after looking good for the
first. If England give Les Bleus that
sort of dominance and field position, they will be in for a very long
afternoon. However, the French have
looked so blunt in attack and flakey in defence, that the English will be
confident of seeing them off – a key area will be around the fringes, where
Wales had them back-peddling constantly; scrum half Ben Youngs will be expected
to open up lots of gaps for his runners around here.
The French meanwhile have just been bizarre. From coach Saint-Andre – whose mantra seemed
to be to pick second-string players and play them out of position – to fly half
Frederic Michalak, who just seemed plain lazy at times. It will come as some relief to fans of Les
Bleus (and some irritation to England fans) that Saint-Andre finally seems to
have screwed his head on and selected a side based on both merit from Top 14
performances and common sense – where the best players are playing in their
best positions. Against Italy and Wales,
the French have looked slow, lateral and inaccurate, but worst of all they have
not shown any urgency when they have gone a score down with limited time left
to play. The leaders have simply not
shown up. However, with nobody expecting
them to win and the pressure, in many ways, now off, there is always a
suspicion that the 'other' France might show up to play – the ones that play
with pace, invention and flair and can destroy any side on their day. Think of the French performances against the
All Blacks in the 2011 final and the 1999 semi final – nerves are growing in
the English camp.
Stuart Lancaster has made three changes to the side that
beat Ireland in Dublin a fortnight ago, with centre Manu Tuilagi returning to
partner Brad Barritt in midfield instead of Billy Twelvetrees, whilst Dylan
Hartley gets the nod at hooker ahead of Tom Youngs. Courtney Lawes will start
at blindside for the first time in international colours instead of flu-victim
James Haskell, with all three displaced players dropping to the bench.
Starting line up: Alex
Goode; Chris Ashton, Manu Tuilagi, Brad Barritt, Mike Brown; Owen Farrell, Ben
Youngs; Joe Marler, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole; Joe Launchbury, Geoff Parling;
Courtney Lawes, Chris Robshaw (capt), Tom Wood
Subs: Tom Youngs,
Mako Vunipola, David Wilson, James Haskell, Thomas Waldrom, Danny Care, Toby
Flood, Billy Twelvetrees
Key Player
Ben Youngs. The
England 9 needs a big game from a personal point of view to hold off the
considerable challenge of Danny Care, after the Harlequins 9 stole the show
against Youngs' club, Leicester, last weekend.
He is also instrumental to England's attacking game around the rucks and
mauls – his lateral bursts drag defenders out of position and create holes for
his runners. If he gets on the same
wavelength as his carriers then England will get a lot of go-forward in this
area.
France Team News
Philippe Saint-Andre appears to finally have sobered up
slightly and picked a side that looks much more threatening and, well, normal. Fly-half Frederic Michalak and scrum-half
Maxime Machenaud are among the casualties from the defeat against Wales at the
Stade de France 12 days ago with Francois Trinh-Duc and Morgan Parra preferred
at half-back. Vincent Clerc returns on
the right wing, with Wesley Fofana moving to inside centre and Maxime Mermoz
dropping out of the squad. Thomas Domingo takes Yannick Forestier's place at
loose-head with Benjamin Kayser starting at hooker in the place of Dimitri
Szarzewski. Christophe Samson, who has only one cap, replaces Jocelino Suta
with flanker Yannick Nyanga stepping in for the injured Fulgence Ouedraogo. The big question is, though, how long will it
take all these new players to connect as a team? To be fair, they can't do much worse than
their last 2 outings.
Starting Line up: Yoann
Huget; Vincent Clerc, Mathieu Bastareaud, Wesley Fofana, Benjamin Fall;
Francois Trinh-Duc, Morgan Parra; Thomas Domingo, Benjamin Kayser, Nicolas Mas,
Christophe Samson, Yoann Maestri, Yannick Nyanga, Thierry Dusautoir (capt),
Louis Picamoles.
Subs: Dimitri Szarzewski, Vincent Debaty,
Luc Ducalcon, Jocelino Suta, Antonie Claassen, Maxime Machenaud, Frederic
Michalak, Florian Fritz.
Key Player
Francois Trinh-Duc.
The Frenchman has been at the epicentre of a very impressive Montpellier
outfit over the last couple of years and yet has found his opportunities
limited at international level, despite never having a bad game. The French will look to him to take the ball
flatter than Michalak and vary his game intelligently to break up any English
momentum.
Key Battle
Manu Tuilagi v Mathieu Bastareaud. Yes, there are more technically important
battles around, such as Cole v Domingo, Parling v Maestri, Robshaw v Dusautoir
and Parra v Youngs, but come on, admit it – this is the collision you want to
see. Tuilagi has the better footwork but
Bastareaud is even heavier than the Leicester man so it will be interesting to
see who comes out on top – one thing's for sure though, these two will be itching
to get stuck into one another and when they do, the fans better hope Twickenham
has some deep foundations.
Head to Head
·
England have won 5 of their last 6 Six Nations
encounters with France
·
If France lose on Saturday, it will be their
worst start in the five/six nations since 1980, and become their worst run in
the tournament since 1958 – when they lost six in a row.
·
The last time France won at Twickenham was in
2005.
Prediction
I think we'll see a much improved French
performance, but will it be enough to dismantle this confident English
side? The kicking game, with France lacking a kicking back 3, and the lineout will be key, but I think that Twickenham is a place
that the French don't really enjoy coming to and if they don't score early, I
think England will come away with a decent win, despite stiff opposition. England by 8.
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