Team for France

[Sandydragon]

Nice skills from Thomas.

[francoisfou]

Magic!

[Buggaluggs]

a proper spanking

[Sandydragon]

Well that tap penalty just about sums up our evening.

[Sandydragon]

Utterly clueless. Not many positives out of this to be fair.

[Wallpaperman]

Ouch. Well played France. Defence and attack problematic for Wales. Should have brought Patchell on when the scores were still relatively close.

[Digby]

By far the better disciplined side out there, so there's that. France do look very good in fairness, and seem to have more idea what they want to do.

[francoisfou]

I’m pleased with the win ahead of the Irish next Saturday. You’ll need to raise your game against the Scots next week.
When was the last time they won in Wales?

[Sandydragon]

I’m pleased with the win ahead of the Irish next Saturday. You’ll need to raise your game against the Scots next week.
When was the last time they won in Wales?

It’s been a long time. That could be about to change.

I’m usually pretty positive but it’s hard to be positive about this. Defence is poor, even taking into account some excellent touches by France.

But what were we trying to achieve out there with the ball? Tompkins showed some threat when he had the ball in space and we did well for our second try.

We need a defence.
We need some ball carriers up front.
We need to look at our halfbacks passing.

[Sandydragon]

I’m pleased with the win ahead of the Irish next Saturday. You’ll need to raise your game against the Scots next week.
When was the last time they won in Wales?

When you stopped giving away penalties and turned up the tempo you played very well. Next weekend should be a cracker.

[Buggaluggs]

On paper - that backline looks good. Didn't seem to translate onto the field.

[Arnietheboot]

That was just a bucket of shite! Clueless, give me wazza ball every day. What the hell were we doing?

[Son of Mathonwy]

Lots of errors. Whether a plan will become evident when we stop making mistakes remains to be seen.

Shame about Biggar's boot going missing, would have been nice of have kept in touch.

Le Roux getting the red he deserved would have helped though.

Ah well, it was just a friendly. Hope we are warmed up now. Don't want to finish fifth.

[Sandydragon]

I hope for the next game we have a bit more grunt in the front five. Ireland’s would be my preferred option alongside AWJ. We need to generate momentum up front and for all his work rate and mobility, Hill doesn’t do that.

[Sandydragon]

On paper - that backline looks good. Didn't seem to translate onto the field.

We struggled to impose ourselves up front. We also failed to get any momentum up front and seemed to go wide too early.

[francoisfou]

The FFR (French Rugby Fédération) have an agreement with the clubs that the players will play a maximum of three of the six matches this Autumn so changes will have to be made, but I cannot see many being made for the Irish 6N match.

[Digby]

On paper - that backline looks good. Didn't seem to translate onto the field.

We struggled to impose ourselves up front. We also failed to get any momentum up front and seemed to go wide too early.

And none of your midfield 3 is exactly a top handler, possibly why the wrap move relied on Tips. They're all fine players but the stronger part of their games isn't quick quality decision making and passing allied to a low error rate. Which Is why to this point we're left wondering what the plan is.

If the plan is to move the ball without much more momentum upfront, and sometimes you just don't have the carriers, and with a solid midfield on the handling front, then the back three need to be much more involved much earlier. North and Adams are too good not to be presenting any threat when no other area of the team looks like it can, as is the team is just waiting for Liam Williams to come back and be able to launch something by himself when the other team kick loosely to him.

Something else which worried me yesterday was the number of instances Wales slowed the play, they didn't even have it in them to run France off the pitch. That of course might just be a Covid thing, and people are going to need some allowances there.

[Buggaluggs]

We basically score a try in the first 60 secs and one meaningless one in garbage time. for the other 75 mins we were out-scored 5 tries to nill.

[Sandydragon]

On paper - that backline looks good. Didn't seem to translate onto the field.

We struggled to impose ourselves up front. We also failed to get any momentum up front and seemed to go wide too early.

And none of your midfield 3 is exactly a top handler, possibly why the wrap move relied on Tips. They're all fine players but the stronger part of their games isn't quick quality decision making and passing allied to a low error rate. Which Is why to this point we're left wondering what the plan is.

If the plan is to move the ball without much more momentum upfront, and sometimes you just don't have the carriers, and with a solid midfield on the handling front, then the back three need to be much more involved much earlier. North and Adams are too good not to be presenting any threat when no other area of the team looks like it can, as is the team is just waiting for Liam Williams to come back and be able to launch something by himself when the other team kick loosely to him.

Something else which worried me yesterday was the number of instances Wales slowed the play, they didn't even have it in them to run France off the pitch. That of course might just be a Covid thing, and people are going to need some allowances there.

I was also questioning fitness a bit, but it will be interesting to see if covid restrictions have had an impact there.

You are also right about decision makers and basic skills. A Garland legacy maybe? I think Tompkins is quite capable of making the pass that Tipuric made, but Biggar and JD2 aren’t noted as exceptional handlers.

[Sandydragon]

I’ve just been reading the comments section of the Fail. I know we played deadly, but it feels like the depth of depression on there.

[Buggaluggs]

I’ve just been reading the comments section of the Fail. I know we played deadly, but it feels like the depth of depression on there.

Soaring highs one day. The depths of the abyss the next. Really odd - not like the Welsh at all.

[Sandydragon]

I’ve just been reading the comments section of the Fail. I know we played deadly, but it feels like the depth of depression on there.

Soaring highs one day. The depths of the abyss the next. Really odd - not like the Welsh at all.

How very true. Bit early for the sack Privac campaign though.

[Numbers]

I'm not convinced it's all that bad, we should have been in the game with 20 to go if we hadn't missed all those kicks and normally that's where we would have a fitness advantage over France, also the complete lack of different angles for the French tries was concerning yet typical of the French TV Directors. Both the offload from Vakatawa to Thomas and the pass to Dupont from Vakatawa for the second Dupont try looked marginal ( I was assuming these weren't being scrutinised at as it was a friendly), but how a TMO can not see the foul play from the SA second row is remarkable and questions should be being asked about that.

We did look underpowered up front but I'm hoping that will improve the fitter we get. I thought Biggar should have been taken off after having the foot problem, not least to preserve him for the Scotland game, I don't think it would have made a difference to his kicking mind you as he successfully kicked two penalties after the injury.

[Wallpaperman]

Am with you re the tries, numbers. The second and third both looked like forward passes at the time (I was sober, honest !), but the issue was the ease with which France cut through the Welsh defence.

Big step up needed this weekend. Would like to see Francis at 3 and Rowlands in the second row. I like Wainwright, but would like to see Lewis-Hughes get a chance this weekend.

[Numbers]

Am with you re the tries, numbers. The second and third both looked like forward passes at the time (I was sober, honest !), but the issue was the ease with which France cut through the Welsh defence.

Big step up needed this weekend. Would like to see Francis at 3 and Rowlands in the second row. I like Wainwright, but would like to see Lewis-Hughes get a chance this weekend.

I watched three times in total to ensure I was using both eyes.