Six Nations: Stephen Ferris previews France v Wales
Published:
Ladbrokes ambassador and former Ireland international Stephen Ferris gives his thoughts on Saturday’s clash between France and Wales on the final weekend of the Six Nations.
France v Wales (Saturday, 14.45, ITV)
Both teams start the match on the back of good wins. Wales managed to get the Italian job done and dusted even though they didn’t play their best stuff. France, meanwhile, absolutely obliterated the English on their home patch which many people have said was one of the best attacking performances they had seen in recent years. So how will they both stack up?
France are flying high, and why wouldn’t they be when they had just recorded their biggest ever win against England. The scrum demolished the English, they made line breaks for fun and made England miss nearly 25% of the total attempted tackles. England had the ball for large parts of the game, but rarely broke through France’s physical defence.
🇫🇷 A classique from 2019!#WelshRugby | #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/7gQGQcWOxY
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) March 15, 2023
Sean Edwards, France’s defence coach, will be looking forward to this match. He was defence coach with Wales under Warren Gatland for many years and now he wants to get one over his old boss. The tactics deployed by both coaches make for a good story. They know each other so well – their strengths and weaknesses.
When you have Damian Penaud, Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Gregory Alldritt just to name a few… you can beat anyone in the world. Wales’s problem heading into this game is that their big players haven’t been firing on all cylinders when the going gets tough. It was all a little bit too easy in Rome last weekend when they didn’t have to work that hard for their scores. However, you can be sure they will have to work hard for any point they manage to get against Les Bleus.
Each of the last six games between these two sides have been decided by five points or fewer, yet the handicap has been set at 20 points, with everyone thinking Wales have no hope. If you pick up a local paper in Wales and read about the sport, rugby is on the front and the back pages for all the wrong reasons. Let’s hope they can get their budgets sorted and start building a team that can compete in every game they play in.
Prediction:
Damian Penaud to score 2+ tries
France will be too strong. Team selection later in the week will interesting as France may give opportunities to fringe players in the squad. If they go full strength, they shopuld beat the handicap. If they don’t, then I think Wales will beat the 20 points.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
