Match Preview – France vs Ireland

We look at some key talking points ahead of France vs Ireland and Wales vs Scotland in the Six Nations on Saturday, including Ireland’s Sexton-less task and an under-pressure Wales…

Sexton’s injury absence an enormous blow

When previewing France vs Ireland ahead of Saturday, the only place to start is with the injury to Irish skipper Johnny Sexton.

The 36-year-old out-half has been absolutely critical to the way in which Ireland have performed under Andy Farrell during the last two Test windows in November and this Six Nations, playmaking to a sensational degree as Ireland have produced free-flowing attack.

Ireland currently have the greatest depth they perhaps have ever had across the general squad, but an injury to Sexton was perhaps the one setback they could ill afford.

Everything goes through the No 10, whose ability to call the right attack moves, decide when to place-kick, defend strongly and – most crucially – execute planned strike plays is of the highest standard.

Loop plays, out-the-back passing, and wraparound moves have become synonymous with Ireland and Leinster because of Sexton, and the speed with which Ireland have pulled them off over their current nine-Test winning run has caused the likes of England, New Zealand, Argentina and Wales real problems.

A hamstring injury picked up at training on Wednesday has robbed Ireland of the talents of Sexton for the trip to the Stade de France, however, which is a major blow to their chances of picking up victory.

Into the team comes Munster’s Joey Carbery, who while a superbly talented player in his own right, has only played 16 minutes of rugby (last week off the bench vs Wales) since fracturing his elbow on December 12.

It’s a huge ask for the 26-year-old, who must lean on the experience and ability around him and not be daunted by a physically imposing and massively gifted France XV in front of him.

Sloppy France’s sensational backline to step up?

France have a backline and halfback pairing in Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack which is the envy of the rugby world – indeed the former is the current World Rugby Player of the Year – but they took a while to get going vs Italy in Round 1.

France’s display was sloppy at the Stade de France vs the Azzurri, and they will need to be much improved in order to ensure victory vs an in-form Ireland.

Full-back Melvyn Jaminet is a lively runner and superb goal-kicker, right wing Damian Penaud is one of the most deadly try-scorers in the sport at the moment, and left wing Gabin Villiere was the pick of the bunch vs Italy, notching an impressive hat-trick.

Gael Fickou is a fantastic performer for Les Bleus in midfield, while alongside him on Saturday, Bordeaux-Begles’ exciting centre Yoram Moefana will make his Test debut.

If France get their tails up and that backline can connect and click with Dupont and Ntamack, there isn’t a side that will be able to live with them, particularly in Paris.

France have a series of enormous forwards who will look to punch holes in the Irish defence down the middle, which in turn will create space for the backs out wide.

Prop Uini Atonio, second row Paul Willemse, and No 8 Gregory Alldritt in particular are difficult men to stop in the carry, while head coach Fabien Galthie has named a 6-2 split of forwards to backs on the bench, with a clear tactic to out-power Ireland.

Discipline will be critical in the Test too, however, and France have a habit of falling foul with the referee.

Ireland, despite their magnificent form over the last year or so, have failed to pick up victory in their last number of key away games (Wales 2021, France 2020, England 2020, Wales 2019). They will likely need one of their best performances in history to buck that trend on Saturday.

Team News

France: 15 Melvyn Jaminet, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Gabin Villiere, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont (captain), 1 Cyril Baille, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Uini Atonio, 4 Cameron Woki, 5 Paul Willemse, 6 Francois Cros, 7 Anthony Jelonch and 8 Gregory Alldritt

Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvuka, 17 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 18 Demba Bamba, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Thibaud Flament, 21 Dylan Cretin, 22 Maxime Lucu, 23 Thomas Ramos

Ireland: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Mack Hansen, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Jamison Gibson Park, 1 Andrew Porter, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 5 James Ryan (captain), 6 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Jack Conan

Replacements: 16 Dan Sheehan, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Peter O’Mahony, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Jack Carty, 23 Robbie Henshaw

Under pressure Wales ‘need improvements across the board’

Title winners in bizarre fashion last year, the feeling and mood in Wales at present could hardly be more negative ahead of hosting a buoyant Scotland at the Principality Stadium.

Wayne Pivac’s charges were destroyed in all areas vs Ireland in Dublin last week, and were fortunate not to lose by more than 29-7, while the Scots picked up a dramatic 20-17 Calcutta Cup win over England in Edinburgh.

Wales have not lost their first two Six Nations games in a campaign for 15 years dating back to 2007, but Pivac admitted improvement was required in all areas.

“It is an improvement across the board, really,” he said. “The players are very critical of themselves. They are very disappointed after the game last week.

“They are desperate to go out there and show we are a much better team than the display we put on last week. Across the board, everybody in the camp was very disappointed.

“We are at home, we are in front of 75,000 people, and we owe it to ourselves and our public to put on a better display, as simple as that.

“They (Scotland) are a very good side. They have got a number of British and Irish Lions. They showed last week that they fight for every blade of grass, and that is certainly what we have got to be doing on the weekend.

“We have to match that, and then bring some on top of that. It is going to be a very hard-fought game, we know that, and it is a Scotland team coming full of confidence.”

Wales have made four changes as the back row is revamped to include Ross Moriarty at No 8 and uncapped Scarlets flanker Jac Morgan at openside for his debut.

Elsewhere, Alex Cuthbert will make his first championship appearance for five years on the wing as Johnny McNicholl drops out, while Owen Watkin is in at outside centre with Josh Adams out injured.

“Jac has trained very well. He is a very abrasive sort of player, and Ross we know is very strong in that area,” Pivac added.

“It just goes to show. There are performances on the park in a Test match that obviously carry a lot of weight, but it is also what you do in training.

“And Jac has certainly done everything asked of him. We are all looking forward to seeing him out there.

“He has been throwing himself about, and I think you will see a big performance. He certainly won’t be lacking in effort.”

Scotland seek first Cardiff win since 2002

For Scotland, though they won on their last Six Nations trip to Wales in 2020, that Test was in played in Llanelli’s Parc y Scarlets and was behind closed doors.

In fact, Scotland haven’t won at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium for two decades stretching back to 2002. They will never have a better chance than this Saturday, though.

Allied to their boost in confidence after victory over England, Scotland are facing a Wales side with a number of injury absentees, low on confidence and playing poorly.

Scotland have also ticked off a number of milestones on the road over the last two Six Nations campaigns, winning at Twickenham last year for the first time since 1984, and in Paris for the first time since 1999, to sit alongside their first win on Welsh soil since 2002 in 2020.

“We should be better equipped to deal with the challenge of going to Cardiff,” head coach Gregor Townsend said this week.

“We’ve not been there for four years so a lot has happened in those years to this team. We’ve had some experiences against some top sides both home and away, and we’ve shown resilience in those games.

“We’ve not won them all but I believe the Tests we had at Twickenham and in Paris last year sets us up this week for what will be a great challenge in a full stadium at one of the best venues in the world.

“It would be hard to top what we did in Paris but the challenge this weekend is a bigger one in many ways because of our history in Cardiff and the fact it’s a full crowd, which it wasn’t in Paris.”

Team News

Wales: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Owen Watkin, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Louis Rees-Zammit, 10 Dan Biggar (captain), 9 Tomos Williams, 1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Will Rowlands, 4 Adam Beard (vice-captain), 6 Taine Basham, 7 Jac Morgan, 8 Ross Moriarty

Replacements: 16 Dewi Lake, 17 Gareth Thomas, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Seb Davies, 20 Aaron Wainwright, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Callum Sheedy, 23 Jonathan Davies

Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ali Price; 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Stuart McInally, 3 WP Nel, 4 Jonny Gray, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Sam Skinner, 7 Hamish Watson, 8 Matt Fagerson

Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Zander Fagerson, 19 Magnus Bradbury, 20 Rory Darge, 21 Ben White, 22 Blair Kinghorn, 23 Cameron Redpath