Six Nations on Friday

France V Wales

I nearly missed this one as it is quite unusual to see games fixed for Friday night.
France kicked off the campaign with defeat in Dublin but were widely and rightly given praise after the display in which they were very unlucky to lose. That proved to be a bit of a false dawn though with an error strewn lack lustre performance against Scotland in Paris 2 weeks ago. They never really had any control in that game and were lucky to get over a fairly average Scottish side. The big news is that fly half Lionel Beauxis is out so Lievremont has to gamble a little and play the inexperienced Benoit Baby. Coming in at scrum half is Morgan Parra who is picked ahead of Sebastien Tillous-Borde. Its doubtful that France will be as poor again and lets remember they were well beaten in Cardiff last year so theres a score to settle.
Wales will be looking to equal the record of both England and France in going nine Six Nations Championship matches without defeat. Two wins from two over Scotland and England leave them in a good position to reclaim the six nations but there were a few doubts over their performance against England. Its hard to say if Wales were bad on the day or did England just play well but there were definitely a few areas exposed by England and the French will look to capitalise on these. Shane Williams is back though and he will be a huge help. He will fit back into the starting 15 and that’s likely to be the only change. Pretty boy Henson is back on the bench too.

Verdict
These are two of the best attacking sides to watch and this should be a great clash. If the real France turn up then the price on them will look huge come tomorrow night. They were poor against Scotland but this is a big game and they should be well up for it. As I see it this is very evenly balanced and I can’t ignore the odds on the home win. Both have their strengths and weaknesses but home venue and a hint of revenge could be the deciding factor in this. England proved that Wales can be got at and the French, if they chose to run the ball, are one of the fastest teams around Il take France to win in what should be a cracker.


PICK
France (2.4 @ sporting bet) 4 points