France take on Wales at the Stade de France on Saturday 19th March 2011 in the fifth round of the RBS 6 Nations tournament 2011. The match kicks off at 20:45 CET (19:45 GMT). If England lose to Ireland, Wales could possibly take the 6 Nations Championship.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland said ahead of the game:
“We are going into the final round of the Championship in second place and still with a shot at the title. That’s pleasing, but it is not good enough yet, we need to finish the job and win in France. That is the only element of this weekend we can control and it is vitally important that we maintain our focus on what will be one of the toughest challenges of this campaign.”
On the Welsh side, George North shores up the left wing for Shane Williams who injured knee ligaments in the win against Ireland, whilst Adam Jones comes in for Craig Mitchell, who dislocated his shoulder in the Ireland match.
French coach Marc Lievremont has made a bold decision to drop six senior players from the 22 that lost to Italy in Rome last weekend. The move took 379 caps worth of experience out of his side. Aurelien Rougerie (63 caps), Yannick Jauzion (73), Sylvain Marconnet (83), Sebastien Chabal (62), Jerome Thion (54) and Clement Poitrenaud (44) have won eight Grand Slams and 18 Six Nations titles between them but will not face Wales in the final match of the tournament.
Table of Contents
Starting Line-Ups – France V Wales RBS 6 Nations 2011
France Starting XV
- 15 Maxime Medard
- 14 Vincent Clerc
- 13 David Marty
- 12 Damien Traille
- 11 Alexis Palisson
- 10 Francois Trinh-Duc
- 9 Morgan Parra
- 1 Thomas Domingo
- 2 William Servat
- 3 Nicolas Mas
- 4 Julien Pierre
- 5 Lionel Nallet
- 6 Thierry Dusautoir
- 7 Julien Bonnaire
- 8 Imanol Harinordoquy
Replacements
- 16 Guilhem Guirado
- 17 Luc Ducalcon
- 18 Pascal Pape
- 19 Alexandre Lapandry
- 20 Julien Tomas
- 21 Fabrice Estebanez
- 22 Yohan Huget
Wales Starting XV
- 15 Lee Byrne
- 14 Leigh Halfpenny
- 13 Jamie Roberts
- 12 Jonathan Davies
- 11 George North
- 10 James Hook
- 9 Mike Phillips
- 1 Paul James
- 2 Matthew Rees
- 3 Adam Jones
- 4 Bradley Davies
- 5 Alun Wyn Jones
- 6 Dan Lydiate
- 7 Sam Warburton
- 8 Ryan Jones
Replacements
- 16 Richard Hibbard
- 17 John Yapp
- 18 Jonathan Thomas
- 19 Josh Turnbull
- 20 Dwayne Peel
- 21 Stephen Jones
- 22 Morgan Stoddart
Officials
- Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
- Assistant Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
- Assistant Referee: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
- TMO: Graham Hughes (England)
