Wales v France: Six Nations preview
By Keith Moore
Last Updated: 26/02/16 7:55pm
We look at five key points in the Six Nations clash between Wales and France at the Principality Stadium on Friday night.
Stuart Barnes suggested this week that France would benefit from a loss in Cardiff, but Guy Noves' side will be looking to maintain their unbeaten run. Wales are also unbeaten though, drawing with Ireland in the first round and beating Scotland in Cardiff a week later.
This week's showdown will go a long way to shaping the rest of the competition - whoever wins the match will likely end up with a title decider against England later in the competition, but where will the game be won and lost? We look at five key points...
Learning from defeat
France arrived at this year's Six Nations with the highly-praised Guy Noves at the helm. Shambolic French rugby without a discernible game-plan was said to have arrived at Les Bleus. Well, if true, they've so far hidden it well.
The record may read two wins from two, but the reality is that the manner of the victories will leave their fans disillusioned. First, Noves' side struggled to put away Italy, then limped over the line against Ireland - both home games, and both games in which France had to come from behind.
You could argue that the fightback showed character, but it's not an argument Stuart Barnes is keen to make, who says the French are doing themselves no favours with scratchy wins.
"If ever the importance of differentiating between performance and results has been obvious, it is the manner of the French performances," Barnes said in this week's column.
"They have been sluggish in the extreme, lucky in that Ireland's on-field injuries conflated with their long-term list of absentees... they have been, in a word, poor.
"Two defeats and a need to rethink their style would be better for France than a few fluky Paris-based wins. The best thing for Les Bleus would be a heavy defeat."
French flair and Welsh pragmatism
Despite the criticism of the French side from all corners, Warren Gatland has indicated that the evolution of defences are the real reason for the lack of tries.
"Everyone talks about French flair and where has the French flair gone? In the past, they had absolute world-class quality players in attack," Gatland said.
"The reason is not so much French flair any more - it's not because they haven't got the players - it's just teams defensively are so organised. There is just no space on the field."
The Wales boss has followed suit by picking Dan Lydiate in the No 6 jersey over Justin Tipuric. While Tipuric has teamed up well with skipper Sam Warburton at the breakdown so far this year, Lydiate's defensive prowess has been preferred against the French threat.
Maxime Machenaud will prove a nuisance at scrum-half for France, employing big forwards as ball carriers at the fringes of the ruck, so if there are to be no tries from the visitors in Cardiff, it will be down to a stern defensive effort led by Lydiate.
The record books
The Welsh are currently enjoying a series of consecutive wins over the French. Since losing to Les Bleus in the semi-final of the 2011 World Cup, Gatland's men have maintained a four-match unbeaten run against France.
However the current run arrived on the back of a forgettable few years for the Welsh against France. Between 2002 and the World Cup loss in Auckland, Wales won just two out of 12 matches between the sides.
Knowing how easily the results can turn, Warburton is not taking anything for granted in Cardiff.
"I have played France for the last five or six years in a row, and I have never found them easy," added the Wales captain.
"Even though we have quite a good record against them in the Six Nations, it has always been a very tough set-piece battle, very physical, and they have individuals with a massive amount of skill and ability.
"There is not a French team I have ever written off. I always rate them very highly."
Touchline tussle
There is an interesting showdown developing this week and it will be played out near the touchline on Friday - the steamrolling power of Wales' George North up against the subtle Sevens touch of Virimi Vakatawa.
Vakatawa is a convert from the shortened version of the game, and made his debut for France against Italy in the Six Nations opener earlier in the month, repaying Guy Noves with a try early on. His vision and speed makes him lethal when he's in space, but there isn't much of that when North is on the field.
At 6 foot 4 and almost 17 stone, North terrorises defences with his line-breaking power and the opposite of Vakatawa, who prefers to dodge tacklers with a sidestep rather than taking the direct route to the tryline.
George North's try against Scotland showed there is more to his game than raw strength, but he will no doubt stick to his strengths against a disjointed French defence.
The Biggar picture
France made no secret of the fact they would be targeting Johnny Sexton in Paris, and they succeeded in rattling the fly-half as he left the field with what Joe Schmidt described as a "whiplash injury".
Next in line to feel the French fire is Dan Biggar, who kicking coach Neil Jenkins has called 'a tough old nut' that will be able to handle the visiting tacklers.
Though an aggressive French side won't be easy for Biggar to negotiate, Jenkins says it's part of the modern game and has backed his No 10 to deal with the attention.
"Can you hide him?" asked Jenkins. "Teams have split set-ups and Ireland and Scotland kicked to Dan whether he was on the left, on the right or down the middle.
"Unless we put him behind the posts and give him a seat in the crowd, we can't hide him.
"If they want to target Dan, they can. He's big enough and strong enough to deal with that, he'll just have to get on with the game and take that as a compliment."