France vs Wales

Kickoff: 8:15pm Friday, ITV 1, Paris

Team news:

France

1.Gros 2.Mauvaka 3.Antonio 4.Roumat 5.Meafou 

6.Cros 7.Boudehent 8.Alldritt 9.Dupont(C) 10.Ntamack 

11.Bielle-Biarrey 12.Moefana 13.Barassi 14.Attissogbee 15.Ramos

16.Marchand 17.Baille 18.Colombe 19.Auradou 

20.Guillard 21.Jegou 22.Le Garrec 23.Gailleton

Wales

1.G.Thomas 2.Lloyd 3.H.Thomas 4.Rowlands 5.Jenkins

6.Botham 7.Morgan(C) 8.Wainwright 9.T.Williams 10.B.Thomas

11.Adams 12.Watkin 13.Tompkins 14.Rogers 15.L.Williams

16.Dee 17.Smith 18.Assiratti 19.F.Thomas 

20.T.Reffell 21.R.Williams 22.Edwards 23.Murray

France kick off the tournament under the lights in Paris on a Friday night in a game they are expected to win comfortably. Dupont and Ntamack return to the Six Nations and will no doubt rekindle their deadly partnership. There are a couple of notable injuries for this game with Damian Penaud suffering a foot injury. Moefana and Barassi will need to use this game to strengthen their chemistry in the absence of FIckou in preparation for games that present a seemingly much greater challenge. France's forward pack is full of monstrous athletes who will likely gain dominance at the scrum giving Dupont ample opportunity to wreak havoc on an inexperienced Welsh team. 

Wales, on the other hand come into this tournament with a very different set of expectations, despite the public insistence of Warren Gatland that they are aiming to win the title. There have been some truly baffling selection decisions including omitting the likes of Llewellyn, Anscombe and Winnett from, not just the starting XV, but the squad as a whole. This is made even weirder by Gatland defending his selection of Watkin and Tompkins by saying that Wales do not have any out and out outside centres when Llewellyn is one of the in-form players at the position in Europe. Evan Lloyd is also a surprising choice at hooker given that he struggles to make the 23 for Cardiff in the URC. Ben Thomas starts at fly-half ahead of Dan Edwards who is more of a natural fly-half; I can't help but feel that Thomas is being massively chucked in at the deep end with a massive lack of support. The strength of this team is the back row: Botham, Morgan and Wainwright are all strong players and Reffell provides qaulity support from the bench. This will be a difficult period for Wales once again but players are slowly emerging and showing that there is some light at the end of the tunnel, even if Gatland's selections are holding the team back somewhat.

Predicted score

France 42 vs 13 Wales