Six Nations rugby 2010 : France V Italy Hospitality

In theory, this should be a simple assignment for Les Bleus, seemingly on an inexorable path towards the title and a potential Grand Slam, but Italy would love to inflict one of the great upsets in the championships history.
France are aware more than anyone else of their own reputation for inconsistency, and no doubt coach Marc Lievremont would have been showing replays of their last 40 minutes of test rugby, when Wales came within a whisker of winning at Millennium Stadium.

That game will remind the Tricolours of their own mortality, and while their final match with England will decide the championship, they will want to make a statement at the expense of an Italian team that will arrive in Paris with some belief, after downing Scotland in Rome.
Italy will try to make it awkward for their opponents, and in more thorough analysis it can be revealed that they have hardly been whipping boys this tournament, with the exception of their first half of rugby against Ireland.

They may still be struggling with their attack, but defensively they have the third best defence by points scored in the tournament, and have let in only four tries – with only France (three conceded) having the better record.
But where they have looked better is that it appears Coach Nick Mallet has dropped the “damage control limitation” game plan, and is actually encouraging his team to win.  Furthermore, they are embracing their natural awkwardness, proving in this tournament, as they did against the Tri Nations power last year; that they are a difficult team to play against.
Their only victory came in 1997 when Massimo Giovanelli led Italy to a remarkable 40-32 win at the Stade Lesdiguieres in Grenoble, France.  The incomparable Diego Dominguez converted all four Italian tries that day and kicked a further four penalties.  The best efforts of a strong French team, led by Fabien Pelous came to nothing as they became the first and only team to lose to the Italians.
France has named a strong side, although they continue to be hamstrung by injuries.  But despite this, they have a level of depth which shows that perhaps Lievremont’s selection policies were in fact the act of an inspired genius.
Only two changes have been made after their 26-20 win over Wales, with David Marty coming into the side forcing Mathieu Bastareaud to the bench.
Castres winger Marc Andreu takes over for Julien Malzieu of Clermont, while Biarritz number nine Dimitri Yachvili makes his return to the national side, coming in on the bench to replace the injured Frederic Michalak.
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New boy of France unfazed by first start – Six Nations Rugby 2010

New boy of France Marc Andreu says he is unfazed by making his first international start as his country go for a Grand Slam against Italy in their Six Nations rugby clash in Paris this Sunday.
The Castres winger is the surprise name in Marc Lievremont’s starting line-up following his debut for Les Bleus against Wales in Cardiff two weeks ago.
 "I now have to stay focused and continue to train well this weekend to be at the top of my game on Sunday.
Andreu made his bow for the France team in a three-minute cameo appearance as a substitute against Wales a fortnight ago.
"That was a first step. I’m now in the starting line-up against a fine Italy side that are having a great tournament.
"For my first start, I’m going to try and perform well so I can stay in this squad that is packed full of top players."
"This does not bother me at all. On the contrary. It should be seen as a strength and not as a weakness. I have always been small and it has never posed me any problems. I’ll play to my qualities to beat my opponents," Andreu said.
That has been shown this season as the winger has become a key part of the Castres team, the surprise leaders of the Top 14 league, starting 20 times and scoring five tries in all competitions.
Born in the town of Frejus on the Cote d’Azur, Andreu grew up in southwest France in a small town outside Bordeaux.
But the pacey winger could well have been lining up for another French national team alongside Thierry Henry and Yoann Gourcuff: he spent his early teenage years concentrating on his football and played in the same youth team as Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh.
He took up rugby seriously at the age of 15 and later signed for Toulon in 2002.
In his seven-year spell with the southern club, Andreu became known for his lightning speed and mazy running with the ball, winning call-ups to France’s Sevens and university sides.
Now Andreu is fulfilling a long-time dream in turning out for the full national team against the Italians.
"All kids who start playing rugby dream of one day playing for the French team and even one day appearing in the Six Nations," he said.
Italy have a wretched record in the tournament, having notched up only their seventh-ever win in ten years against Scotland a fortnight ago.
Yet Andreu is refusing to underestimate the threat they pose.
"We’ll have to take the Italians very seriously after they beat Scotland. They played well against England and Ireland so we must be very careful," he said.
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Italy coach Mallett salutes fantastic victory France V Italy Hospitality

Italy’s South African coach Nick Mallett hailed his team’s 16-12 victory over Scotland at the Stadio Flaminio on Saturday and said it should be cherished.
Italy won for the first time since they beat Scotland 23-20 with a last minute Andrea Marcato drop goal in 2008 and Mallett admitted it was wonderful to feel the glory of victory once again.
"This is the seventh time we’ve won in 10 years so it’s not as if we get many wins and every single win is fantastic," he said.
"We’ve come very close on a number of occasions such as getting to just five points from England last time out but it’s a completely different feeling when we manage to hold onto a win, it’s really great for the players and the staff."
Despite Italy’s players praising Scotland before the game for the way they have been playing in this tournament, it was the hosts who made the only foray over their opponents tryline.
Italy trailed 12-9 midway through the second period but then Gonzalo Canale made a weaving midfield break and offloaded to Pablo Canavosio who darted under the posts to score.
"The players were very impressed with the way Scotland played against Wales and if they didn’t have those two yellow cards they probably would’ve won," added Mallett.
"The compliments from our players before the game were genuine, they’re playing very good rugby and we were nervous before the game about how they would play today in the sunshine with perfect conditions for fast, flowing rugby.
"We’re very satisfied to hold them to not scoring a try, even if twice they came close." Mallett was particularly pleased with his team’s defence, not just against the Scots but throughout the tournament.
"We knew the Scots play a lot in the hands, they have this high tempo game and play with many phases and they have good individuals," he added.
"Our discipline was very good, it was important to tackle, we had to get in position and we’ve improved our defence a lot.
"We have only conceded one try in the last 80 minutes against England, 80 minutes against Scotland and the last 50 minutes against Ireland and we’re pleased with that." Scotland coach Andy Robinson, the former England international and coach, admitted defeat was hard to take but gave credit to the hosts.
"Any losing experience is pretty deflating, I thought our players put a lot of effort into their performance but we didn’t manage the scoreboard well enough and obviously Italy scored a good try which allowed them to win the game," he said before lamenting their poor start that saw them fall 6-0 down.
"Our execution was poor in that first 10 minutes, we dropped a number of balls and that was frustrating for the way we wanted to play.
"We got back in there with some very good play from (man-of-the-match) Dan Parks (author of all 12 Scottish points).
"But in that first 10 minutes we lost the contact battle but also dropped a lot of balls which allowed them to get the six points."
Scotland prop Allan Jacobsen twice drove over the line under a pile of bodies but both times was denied the score after the video referee could not determine whether the ball had been grounded or not.
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Defeat and James Haskell row leave bitter taste for Stade Francais

The Guinness Premiership and the Magners League pause for breath as the Six Nations resumes this weekend. Not so the Top 14, where round 22 of the club championship overlaps stage four of France’s grand slam, against Italy.
Stade Français are by now accustomed to doing without their internationals, or at least James Haskell, but the 29-0 defeat by Toulouse at the Stade de France will have left a bitter taste in their mouth. Presumably that was all part of the plan when Martin Johnson, the manager of England, refused to allow the back-row forward to return to Paris at the weekend.
It wouldn’t be the first time rugby folk from other countries have run into the brick wall of England’s mightiest:
Stade are struggling in seventh place in the Top 14, with places in the play-offs for the top six. An away game next in Brive is not exactly designed to calm the nerves, although Brive will be without a qualified Englishman of their own, Riki Flutey. It’s all part of the congestion of fixtures and sub-plots at this stage of the club season.
Even Toulouse had to pay a price in their emphatic away victory in Paris, Frédéric Michalak’s season coming to an abrupt halt with a knee injury. Clermont, too, suffered as they beat Perpignan, with arguably the best all-round team in Europe losing Martín Scelzo, one of their ferocious Argentinian front-row forwards, with a broken hand. The Leinster scrummagers, due to face Clermont in the Heineken Cup quarter-final in April, will not be distressed.
Were it not for the international incident, there would nevertheless be a certain serenity to the French league, if only because their relegation battle lacks the rabidity of the dogfight in England. Albi are doomed and Montauban have dropped into the second slot for the chop, thanks to their defeat at Bourgoin and fellow strugglers Bayonne beating Albi.
Bayonne’s cause is helped by a healthy tally of 11 bonus points, compared with Montauban’s five, and the measly two for the two teams above them, Bourgoin and Montpellier.
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Six Nations 2010: France’s Mathieu Bastareaud goes up against Brian O’Driscoll

At Murrayfield he confronted his demons and scored two tries, and now in Paris Mathieu Bastareaud will face the world’s best centre – Brian O’Driscoll.
It will be a pivotal clash in probably the key game of the 2010 Six Nations. Bastareaud is beginning to make the headlines for the right reasons again, for which he and France are grateful.
O’Driscoll has reigned supreme for a decade since then, but you fancy Bastareaud is a worthy opponent and an individual capable of being the benchmark midfield player in the Six Nations well into this next decade. A changing of the guard possibly? O’Driscoll will resist, like all great players do, but the result should be a fascinating cameo within the bigger contest under the floodlights at Saint- Denis.
"He is only 21 but he is already a very complete player," said his co-centre, Yannick Jauzion, still no mean operator himself. "People see a young man of massive strength but they do not always understand his speed and the way he links with people. He has made a big impact already and it is still so early in his career."
"Mathieu is a wiser man. He has apologised to everybody who needed apologising to many times over. He cannot apologise any more, the incident is over. He can only play good rugby and conduct himself in the appropriate fashion. His abilities have always been evident and now he is a hungry man with points to prove, which is always good in a player."
Going forward Bastareaud is undoubtedly a force of nature if used correctly, although his defence has rarely been fully tested, something Ireland and O’Driscoll will look to exploit on Saturday afternoon.
It is his temperament, however, that will come under the sternest examination, the ability to make the appropriate call at the right time. Something that eluded him off the field last summer.
µ Lièvremont has named an unchanged 23-man squad for Saturday’s game with Ireland although wings Aurelien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall and prop Luc Ducalcon face fitness tests.
Though his side got off to a successful start at Murrayfield, beating Scotland 18-9, Lièvremont accused Welsh referee Nigel Owens of denying his side a bigger victory.
"I have to pay tribute to the courage of the Scots but the referee’s leniency with them and his extreme severity with our team was one of the reasons why the score was not higher," Lièvremont said.
"I feel sad because it’s a bit recurring. We can’t forget that last year in Dublin, there were 13 penalties against us and two against Ireland," he said, referring to France’s 30-21 defeat at Croke Park in a game also controlled by Owens.
"We are going to polish up our report to Paddy O’Brien. Refereeing is a factor of the game we can’t control but we’ll still try to solve the problem."
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Rugby: Hines knows all about Italy’s mystery man ahead of Six Nations clash

NATHAN HINES today delved into his rugby league background to provide inside track on one of the most controversial players to grace the RBS Six Nations.
Expected to gain a ninth cap at stand-off for Italy in Rome on Saturday is 31-year-old Australian-born Craig Gower, a virtual unknown in union circles before making his debut last summer – except to the likes of Hines, who was also born in Australia and came across Gower in the 13-a-side code there.
Hines was born in Wagga Wagga and moved to Scotland in 1998 where he took advantage of ancestry qualifications.
He said: "Craig was at Penrith Panthers when I was at the Bears and although he was a year younger I learned how he was being earmarked even as a teenager to become a Kangaroo. His breakthrough into top grade rugby league came early."
"Although he hasn’t had heaps of 15-a-side experience and even less in the international arena he still has that rugby brain which enables him to see opportunities when they arise."
Hines returns to the Scotland squad after withdrawing from the team which visited Wales due to ankle damage. Although listed on the bench it is likely he will emerge at some stage for a 63rd Test appearance making him the most capped player in a squad that will have Hugo Southwell and Chris Cusiter turning out for the 50th time.
It is a landmark that Hines is particularly proud of and makes him suitably qualified to remark on just what the occasion will mean.
"Chris is captain and knows what it is like to lead the team out but that could be a new experience for Hugo this weekend.
"Although I’m obviously sorry Chris Paterson is out through injury it is good that Hugo’s 50th appearance will seen him able to run on at the start.
"All the focus is on getting a win this weekend but that still shouldn’t obscure two tremendous achievement. I’d like to think when you make that number of appearances you are recognised as having made a contribution although it is mainly later that you look back on things like that."
As for Hines being able to get insight through playing club rugby at Leinster who are chock-a-block with Irish internationalists, many of whom were in action against Italy at the start of the current series, he insists dialogue is always limited when it comes to exchanging notes.
"It’s maybe strange but at Leinster there is rarely a lot of chat about the international scene although, when Scotland beat Australia last Autumn, that did merit a few ‘well dones’.
Perhaps that is because Hines and his mates have been pre-occupied with their defence of the Heineken European Cup – they host Clermont Auvergne in the quarter-finals – while a recent 30-0 win over Munster was a highlight of his time in the Irish capital, so far.
The intensive schedule can take its toll, though, culminating in that ankle injury which provoked his absence from the Cardiff clash and opened a door for Jim Hamilton who retains his place.
"There was a time when I played when I maybe should have rested and against France I aggravated swelling in my ankle joints.
"It presented itself as a calf strain but as that subsided my ankle became sore.
"I learned my lesson from playing when I probably should have pulled out and I have now had two injections in my ankle so feel really good to go."

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Shane Williams is one of rugby’s all-time greats

WING wizard Shane Williams today stands out on his own as the undisputed try king of Welsh rugby.
His scintillating late touchdown against France on Friday night saw him surpass the great Gareth Edwards as the leading Welsh try-scorer in the history of the Five Nations and Six Nations rugby championships.
Williams had drawn level with Edwards on 18 championship tries with the score that completed a remarkable comeback in the dramatic victory over Scotland two weeks earlier.
And on Friday, he went clear at the top of the Welsh list by sidestepping his way over for his 19th tournament touchdown.
“It’s a massive honour to surpass someone like Gareth Edwards, who is a true legend of the game,” said the Ospreys speedster as he reflected on his achievement.
While it took former scrum-half Edwards 45 championship games to notch his tally of 18 tries, Williams has gone one better in just 35 appearances.
“I just love scoring tries, full stop,” he said. “That’s what I’m here to do and that’s what I’ve enjoyed doing since I was a kid. You are the equivalent of the striker in football. I’m just a little bit greedy maybe.”
While his match-winning effort against Scotland might have been a case of him popping up in the right place at the right time to round off a team move, his record-breaking score on Friday was all his own work.
As he ran back to halfway, he raised his arm in salute to the crowd and the ovation he received in response spoke volumes for the admiration the Welsh public has for the Great Entertainer.
“If someone had told me the year after my debut that I would score this many tries, I would have looked at them silly because I wasn’t even involved in the Wales squad then,” he said.
“I want to continue scoring tries,” said Williams. “I want to get up with the likes of Campese.
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but what I will do is continue to work hard and get involved in games.
“The more often I get involved the probability goes up I can create something and score tries.”
It was just unfortunate that his record-breaking sizzler against France couldn’t have coincided with a Welsh victory.
“As far as I was concerned, it was all about beating France and everything else was just a bonus,” said Williams.
“So to lose the way we did was very frustrating and a real kick in the teeth.
“We are a nation that tries to play rugby and sometimes you get punished for doing that.
“We conceded two interception tries, one my fault, which really took the wind out of our sails.
“In fairness, France started very well and defended very well and made it very difficult for us. “It was all catch-up for us in the second half again.
“There’s a bit of deja vu about the way we’ve started the last three games.
“You’ve got to commend the guys for the way they came back.
While his team have been denied, there’s no denying Williams his place in the record books or his status as one of the all-time greats of the Welsh game.
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Wales – great, or greatly deluded?

Wales coach Warren Gatland has never been shy of aiming his verbal hand grenades at teams in big-match build-ups.
The Kiwi’s take on the game was echoed throughout the camp, players and coaches lining up to stress how close Wales are to greatness.
Ryan Jones claimed Les Bleus were "creaking" and "there for the taking", Shane Williams said France were "on the ropes" and Stephen Jones talked of Wales aiming to be "one of the best sides in the world".
It is a view that can easily seduce when one remembers the thrilling fight backs that have characterised the men in red’s last three games, against France, Scotland and England.
But the idea can just as easily shatter when considering the lax and error-ridden early action that had left Wales so distant in those three Tests, and in November’s hammering against Australia.
Former England coach Dick Best famously claimed that Wales’ 2005 Grand Slam was built on foundations of sand, but that surely cannot be said of the present side.
The scrum shared the spoils with a formidable France eight and – although the line-out creaked once again – that seems to be a frustrating case of failures in accuracy and execution rather than personnel.
Key players like Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Alun Wyn Jones and Mike Phillips have been missing for extended periods, although strength in depth has been built in their absence.
Physicality at the breakdown is a concern, but Wales clearly have the fitness to live with the best and their attacking potential is beyond doubt.
The biggest deterioration since Gatland’s inaugural, Grand Slam year of 2008 has undoubtedly been the defence.
Two years ago Wales conceded just two tries as they stormed to Six Nations glory. In three games in 2010 they have leaked seven.
Last week Gatland pointed to the continued absence of Gavin Henson as a key element in the defence’s decline, but after the France game there was a more positive spin.
"We’ve picked an attack-loaded team and I was very proud of the defence," said defence coach Shaun Edwards.
"To keep France to no offensive tries was a great effort. But there is no doubt people are doing their homework and have seen they can get intercepts, because more than 30% of our tries conceded over the last 18 months have come from intercepts."
Whatever the problems in the Welsh side, it seems that self belief is not one of them.
This would seem a deliberate ploy from Gatland who has identified Welsh pessimism as a weakness and has been keen to build confidence in victory ahead of major Tests.
It is the sort of thinking that saw him question Mathieu Bastareaud’s fitness before the France match, to ask whether New Zealand had lost their aura before the All Blacks game and to stress his players’ dislike of Ireland before last year’s Six Nations decider.
A trip to face the Championship holders in Croke Park on 13 March is next up for Wales.
"If we can be on a level playing field going into second half against Ireland… we feel we can beat anybody," flanker Jonathan Thomas has already declared.
Gatland said: "We’re critical of ourselves and hard on ourselves and hopefully that will make us a better side moving forward.
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