Key Reads
- Ireland v France: What time is kick-off and what TV channel is it on?
- Team news as Caelan Doris returns and France go for a 7-1 bench split
- Matt Williams on France’s firepower
- Gerry Thornley on the battle of the 9s
- Listen to The Counter Ruck podcast for analysis before the game
That’s enough from us for today.
We’ll see you back here for tomorrow’s game. John O’Sullivan’s on live blogging duty so you’re in good hands.
Bed early now folks, Saturday’s going to be a big one.
To see us out, Gerry Thornley’s latest Counter Ruck newsletter has landed.
"More often than not, the forwards provide the grunt in the physical exchanges and the backs provide the finesse, but backline replacements are becoming an endangered species with more and more coaches opting for 6-2 and even 7-1 splits‚" he writes.
Yes, we’re talking all things replacements this week.
Gerry believes the ‘Bomb Squad’ tactic is a “bad look for the sport” which should be stamped out.
"This would simply serve to make the game both safer and better balanced," he adds.
Have a read of the full piece below, and if you’d like to receive the Counter Ruck newsletter direct to your inbox you can sign up at the top of the page.
[ Gerry Thornley: Rugby must put an end to forward-laden benchesOpens in new window ]
Last week, Matt Williams implored us to get out and see French captain Antoine Dupont in action. “Watch him and wallow in his greatness. In victory or defeat enjoy Dupont’s play, because none of us may ever see his likes again,” he wrote.
This morning, Gerry Thornley added his two cents, teeing up what will undoubtedly be an epic battle between Dupont and his Ireland scrumhalf counterpart Jamison Gibson-Park.
“In any other era, Gibson-Park might be considered the best scrumhalf in the world game. As things stand, Gibson-Park is the favourite to be next summer’s Lions Test 9. But, in Dupont, he’s up against the best player in the world,” GT wrote.
Well, for Johnny Watterson, seeing is believing. He went along to France’s captain’s run at the Aviva this afternoon. Safe to see, he is in utter agreement with his colleagues.
“Several inches short of six feet tall, nine pounds shy of 14 stone, Dupont has much to do to stand tall on a rugby pitch.
“Yet here he is out among the bigger, faster and more imposing French players, herding them around the pitch, whipping them from side to side, picking and flicking and then animating for a long pass, but at the last moment cocking his wrists and popping the ball in the air for a runner to come ghosting through from nowhere.”
In my quest to find nuggets of information to keep you all suitably entertained, I stumbled across a nice coincidence.
Cian Healy, Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray will tomorrow (March 8th) play their last home game for Ireland.
March 8th, 2014, another Irish rugby great made his final bow at the Aviva Stadium – Brian O’Driscoll.
Eleven years ago, the day saw Ireland claim a 46-7 victory over Italy on their way to winning the championship.
Of all the tributes paid to Ireland’s retiring trio, the Six Nations social media team struck a rather morbid tone with this particular piece of cinematography.
Italy are now joining the party, head coach Gonzalo Quesada announcing his team for Sunday’s game against England at Twickenham.
Six changes for the Italians from their thumping at the hands of France last time out, among them winger Monty Ioane who returns from injury.
Steve Borthwick likes to get out of the starting gates early – he named his team on Wednesday.
The England head coach made three changes to the side that took a narrow win over Scotland, Marcus Smith dropping to the bench to make room for Elliot Daly at fullback, Fin Smith staying put at outhalf. And former captain Jamie George returns to the inner circle to earn his 100th cap.
ENGLAND: Elliot Daly; Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Fraser Dingwall, Ollie Sleightholme; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Will Stuart; Maro Itoje (capt), Ollie Chessum; Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Tom Willis.
Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Jack van Poortvliet, Marcus Smith.
ITALY: Ange Capuozzo; Monty Ioane, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Matt Gallagher; Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Marco Riccioni; Niccolo Cannone, Federico Ruzza; Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro (capt), Ross Vintcent.
Replacements: Gianmarco Lucchesi, Mirco Spagnolo, Simone Ferrari, Riccardo Favretto, Manuel Zuliani, Lorenzo Cannone, Martin Page-Relo, Tommaso Allan.
To cast a literary eye on proceedings, Saturday will have many plots.
A likely championship decider; Grand Slam hopes still alive for Ireland; an Aviva farewell for O’Mahony, Murray and Healy; 50th caps for Caelan Doris, Finlay Bealham and Jack Conan.
But that’s not all. Simon Easterby also wants us to keep an eye on the subplots of the game. Pay attention, this will be on the exam.
“If you’ve got two of the best nines playing against each other (Jamison Gibson-Park and Antoine Dupont), you might have two of the best eights at the moment playing against each other, so I think that creates another little subplot,” said Easterby.
“Alldritt has been a marquee, standout player for them for a number of years. He just does everything really well and he has the ability to ride tackles and create turnovers himself.
“We’ve got one of, if not the best number eights in the world ourselves at the moment and there’s very little between those two players.
“(It’s) a little battle in the game that will go a long way to see who gets on the front foot, who gets momentum and potentially goes on to win the game, those little battles between players like Alldritt and Caelan.”
Is that all? Nope.
Easterby added: “(France outhalf Romain) Ntamack, physically, he’s probably a lot bigger than people consider when you see him on the TV. He’s actually got a big stature and he has the ability to play the game with his Toulouse team-mate (Dupont) and that sometimes gives them an advantage as a team.
“He’s kind of got an all-court game in terms of his kicking, his ability at the line, his ability in his passing game.
“But we’ve got a couple of pretty special ones there ourselves, in Sam and Jack Crowley.
“So again, probably another subplot and little battle that will go a long way towards the success of either team – how the number 10s that start the game can manage it and how they control the game in the areas of the pitch we play and also the way we play.”
Now, let’s take a quick look behind enemy lines.
France head coach Fabien Galthié had many a kind word to say about Ireland after announcing his team on Thursday.
“This match has special stakes, we know that and that’s what we want. What’s more, it’s a match against the best European nation in the last three or four years.
“They’re a very high-level team, one of the two best nations in the world, if not the best, and they’re playing at home. It’s true that the challenge is immense. And taking on a huge challenge is what we’re looking for.”
Oh Fabien, you flatter us.
On his own team, Galthié spoke briefly on the return of Romain Ntamack at outhalf – the Toulouse kicker having served a suspension following a red card in France’s opening round fixture against Wales – and that 7-1 bench split.
“(Ntamack) has been training with us throughout the tournament. He’s part of the team dynamic,” he said.
“The choice of a 7-1 bench is linked to the profiles of the most competitive players we currently have in the French team. Looking at the performances we’ve had for a while now, that’s what we think is the best way to perform.”
For the third time in as many years, it looks that the winner of Ireland’s clash with France will go on to win the Six Nations. Who, then, are the favourites for Saturday’s clash in Dublin and why?
Irish Times rugby correspondent Gerry Thornley joins Nathan Johns to preview the clash on The Counter Ruck podcast. What does Ireland’s selection of Jamie Osborne as Mack Hansen’s injury replacement tell us of the impending game plan? Will Ireland continue to be a kick-heavy team? What to make of France’s attack scoring a plethora of tries so far in this competition?
Is Ireland vs France the best rivalry of the modern era?
Rugby columnist Matt Williams is very excited about the game at the Aviva this weekend. He sees it as an “experiment in Darwinian evolution” − which makes him think about the risks you take while driving onto a roundabout in France.
“Take those same survival laws and put them into your match plan to prepare for the French at the Aviva,” he says. Suffice to say that he thinks Ireland have their work cut out for them.
He dives in to crunch some numbers and comes up with a worrying conclusion.
“The reality is that the foundation for stopping Ireland’s game plan rests in disrupting their possession from set play and giving away a minimum number of penalties. To create chaos in the Irish defence, opposition attacks must produce offloads. New Zealand played this game last November. The stats suggest France are highly capable of repeating New Zealand’s success.”
[ Matt Williams: France have power and unpredictability to put Ireland in a spinOpens in new window ]
France and Ireland has developed into a real rivalry in recent years, with the excitement matching the quality on show. Gerry Thornley though is peeved that this game is being staged off-Broadway, as the first game of the 6N weekend.
“By rights, this fixture should be the night-time finale to Super Saturday or at least in the early evening slot next Saturday,” he opines.
And look, we are not arguing with him, not this weekend anyway.
“It’s hard to imagine there’s ever been a European rivalry quite like this one, and it assuredly can’t last much longer. So, we should enjoy it while we have it. Welcome to ‘Le Nouveau Crunch’”.
[ France and Ireland is a rivalry for the agesOpens in new window ]
Although, we have registered some pretty impressive scores against France ourselves. More recent too...
Ah, the good old days. When rugby shirts fluttered in the breeze.
There are of course two other games on this weekend, as much was we might be obsessing over Ireland v France. The weekend’s fixtures are ...
Saturday, March 8th
Ireland v France, at the Aviva Stadium, 2.15pm, and you can follow the action on RTÉ and The Irish Times blog.
Scotland v Wales, in Murrayfield, 4.45pm (live on Virgin Media, BBC).
Sunday, March 9th
England v Italy, Twickenham, 3pm (live on RTÉ, ITV).
You might have spotted the kicking difficulties suffered by Scotland outhalf Finn Russell the last day out in Twickenham. Interestingly Scotland coach Gregor Townsend has said that Russell will continue with the kicking duties in Saturday’s game against Wales.
Russell missed kicks at Twickenham that would have given his side victory over England two weeks ago. Scotland’s co-captain was off target with all three conversion attempts against England and his last miss in the final minute allowed the hosts to squeeze home 16-15.
“I think they were tough conversions. One of them he would have thought wasn’t as tough but his last one was very tough. With about 20 seconds to go, he got asked to move it further to the touchline,” Townsend said.
Scotland had raised the intervention of referee Pierre Brousset in a review with World Rugby, feeling Russell was asked to kick from two metres wider than where Duhan van der Merwe grounded the try.
“The scoreline won’t change,” added Townsend. “It doesn’t really make it even less or more frustrating.”
Russell has spent much of this week practising his kicking ahead of Saturday’s game at Murrayfield, added the coach.
“Finn is an excellent kicker. Last year he was the best kicker in the championship and I’m sure by the end of the Six Nations his stats will be back up there with what he normally produces and has delivered for Scotland over the years,” he said.
“Who’s the tall teenager with the Beatles haircut and the tracer-like pass?” That is the question that John O’Sullivan poses at the beginning of his feature looking back at the rugby life and times of Cian Healy, Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray.
Ireland will be waving goodbye to a lot of experience at the end of this Six Nations campaign when the trio retire, and John spoke to some of the people who know them best to get an insight into what makes them tick. And what they are like behind the scenes.
“I’ve so many memories of the three boys, some of them messy, like when they’d kick the lovely, clean, folded laundry up and down the corridor in Carton House. It used to come back in neat parcels, they, amongst other culprits, would collect their gear, and then kick the rest of it down the corridor.”
[ Green giants Healy, O'Mahony and Murray set for final home bowOpens in new window ]
Finlay Bealham has been pondering his growing role in the Ireland team. When he lines up against France at the Aviva it will be his 50th outing in Ireland green.
Even he seems slightly surprised by this turn of events.
“There was probably a time where I was thinking, ‘Jeez, I may only get 10 caps’. You get to 10 and then you’re like, ‘I’ll just try get to 20’, and then fast forward, on the verge of getting 50. Like I said it’s really special to see the calibre of players that have gone and got 50 themselves. To have myself getting 50 is something that I’m truly honoured to do and something I value very much.”
Quite apart from battling with France, we are also quite capable of creating our own internal squabbles as well, as anyone following the debate around the Ireland number 10 jersey will know.
At the moment, the debate around Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley is divided firmly along blue and red lines. You can probably guess why.
But hang on – if you mix red and blue together, you get green! (Editor’s note: you don’t, you get purple. And a mess.)
Anyway, let Johnny Watterson explain the whole affair:
“The drift in thinking towards Leinster being the favoured province with an unfair advantage over the others doesn’t have to be true or false for fault lines to begin to show, and for people to take a partisan position on what player should wear the Irish 10 shirt.”
[ Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley are at the centre of a rugby culture warOpens in new window ]
So, where do we start? How about with the fact that both Ireland and France are driven by little geniuses wearing 9?
How good are they? Let’s let Gerry Thornley explain that.
“In any other era, Gibson-Park might be considered the best scrumhalf in the world game. As things stand, Gibson-Park is the favourite to be next summer’s Lions Test number 9. But, in Dupont, he’s up against the best player in the world.”
[ Mouthwatering clash of Dupont and Gibson-Park is one to savourOpens in new window ]
Welcome to our live story building up to Saturday’s highly-anticipated Six Nations game between Ireland and France in the Aviva Stadium.
How big is this game? Well, Gerry Thornley called it “Le Nouveau Crunch” during the week, so that should give you a fair indication.
We will be bringing you all the latest news, injury updates, analysis and predictions from our writers to keep you up to date with all you need to know as Simon Easterby’s side aim to keep their Grand Slam ambitions on course.
Key Match Details
- Ireland v France: What time is kick-off and what TV channel is it on?
- Team news as Caelan Doris returns and France go for a 7-1 bench split
- Listen to The Counter Ruck podcast for analysis before the game
