Finally every team announcement is in! The final version is live!
In the Northern Hemisphere, the World Cup warmup matches are really getting underway this weekend, with France visiting Scotland, Ireland hosting Italy and England visiting God’s Own Country.
Scotland v France 1515 BST, 0015 AEST
Team News
Scotland:
1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Ewan Ashman, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Matt Fagerson, 7 Hamish Watson, 8 Jack Dempsey, 9 Ben White, 10 Finn Russell (captain), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 13 Huw Jones, 14 Darcy Graham, 15 Blair Kinghorn, 16 Dave Cherry, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 WP Nel, 19 Scott Cummings, 20 Rory Darge, 21 George Horne, 22 Cameron Redpath, 23 Ollie Smith
France:
1. Gros, 2. Borgarit, 3. Bamba, 4. Woki, 5. Chalureau, 6. Boudehent, 7. Macalou, 8. Tanga, 9. Couilloud, 10. Jalibert, 11. DuMortier, 12. Moefana, 13. Gailleton, 14. Bielle-Biarrey, 15. Dulin, 16. Mauvaka, 17. Wardi, 18. Falatea, 19. Wilemse, 20. Cretin, 21. Serin, 22. Hastoy, 23. Vincent.
Thoughts
Scotland appear to have picked very close to their best side, Ashman is the only fresh face in the starting XV, there are a few more on the bench. France have picked a B-side, but it’s an alarmingly talented one. Top try scorer in the Top 14. Hastoy, the fly half for La Rochelle who beat Leinster in the Heineken Cup Final and were the better team in the Top 14 final the next week (they lost to excessive personal star power from Toulouse, but they were the better team) is riding the pine and should get some serious game time. If you’ve followed French test rugby over the last four years there’s a batch of names like Woki, Jalibert, Dulin, Moefana and Wilemse that you’ll recognise as well. These have been starters or consistently used off the subs bench. If you follow the Top 14 (which I admit I only see through ERC competitions rather than weekly) then you’ll probably recognise a lot more of these names. This is not quite at the Welsh and English level of “who are they?” this is more the superstars of French domestic rugby plus the wider national squad players coming out to play. The casual fan might think “where’s Dupont, where’s Penaud, where’s Fickou?” but this is a good side still.
Predictions
This is a tough call. It’s a settled Scotland team, with a game under their belt already, against a super-talented but really quite experimental French side. I don’t think Galtié would be upset by a loss, unless it’s a huge margin, but we’ve seen the U20’s are implementing the Edwards defence, I imagine this team will. They’ve got the talent to score as well and the experience to settle it down and get the job done. It might be closer than my French friends would like though, just because those combinations aren’t there.
France by 7.
Ireland v Italy 2000 BST, 0500 AEST
Ireland:
1. Kilcoyne, 2. Herring, 3. O’Toole, 4. Henderson (capt), 5. McCarthy, 6. Baird, 7. Doris, 8. Conan, 9. Casey, 10. Crowley, 11. Stockdale, 12. McCloskey, 13. Henshaw, 14. Earls, 15. O’Brien, 16. Stewart, 17. Healy, 18. Furlong, 19. Beirne, 20. Prendergast, 21. Blade, 22. Frawley, 23. Nash.
Italy:
1. Danilo Fischetti, 2. Giacomo Nicotera, 3. Marco Riccioni, 4. Dino Lamb, 5. Federico Ruzza (capt), 6. Sebastian Negri, 7. Manuel Zuliani, 8. Toa Halafihi, 9. Stephen Varney, 10. Paolo Garbisi, 11. Monty Ioane, 12. Tommaso Menoncello, 13. Juan Ignacio Brex, 14. Paolo Odogwu, 15. Tommaso Allan, 16. Luca Bigi, 17. Paolo Buonfiglio, 18. Simone Ferrari, 19. Niccolo Cannone, 20. Michele Lamaro, 21. Lorenzo Cannone, 22. Alessandro Fusco, 23. Lorenzo Pani.
Thoughts
Really the biggest news here is the, known but still awkward, absence of Sexton. Ireland have looked incredibly poor without him over the last few years and here they are without him again. They should still be too good for Italy though. However, as with everyone except Scotland, we’ve got a pretty experimental lineup from Farrell. There are a smattering of familiar names starting: Henderson, Doris and Conan. There are more on the bench: Healy, Furlong and Beirne. But there are three players earning their first caps: Stewart, Frawley and Nash. In the absence of Sexton, Crowley is starting at 10 and earning just his fourth cap, inside him Casey is play scrum half and earning his tenth. While this seems like a really inexperienced pairing, they play together for Munster, so they should gel well together. McCarthy, in the second row is also inexperienced, he’s starting his first game. There are also a rash of players that are almost certainly on the fringes of selection for Farrell. Stockton hasn’t even been in the wider squad for over two years now, yet here he is starting.
There are a whole host of changes here for Italy as Garbisi returns at 10, which instantly makes the side look stronger, as does the reappearance of Negri at 6. Still no Cappuozo though, which is a shame, he’s nursing an injury but should be fit for the World Cup. Italy have announced a couple of new caps, Odogwu and Lamb. Lamb is yet another of these lock/backrow hybrid players, Odogwu is a big power wing. This might not be quite the strongest side Italy can put out, but it’s much closer to it that the side that got beaten by Scotland last week, although there are still some interesting experiments around the edges.
Prediction
Because Italy are close to full strength and Ireland have new partnerships and fringe players all over the park I would dearly love to pick the Azurri. It wouldn’t be a shock if they did win, but it would still be quite an upset and I think Ireland still have too much class in too many places. This one could be tense for the Irish still. Ireland by 3.
Wales v England 1730 BST, 0230 AEST
Team News
Wales:
1. Corey Domachowski, 2. Ryan Elias, 3. Keiron Assiratti, 4. Dafydd Jenkins, 5. Will Rowlands, 6. Christ Tshiunza, 7. Jac Morgan (capt), 8. Aaron Wainwright, 9. Gareth Davies, 10. Sam Costelow, 11. Rio Dyer, 12. Max Llewellyn, 13. George North, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 15. Leigh Halfpenny, 16. Elliot Dee, 17. Nicky Smith, 18. Henry Thomas, 19. Ben Carter, 20. Taine Plumtree, 21. Tomos Williams, 22. Dan Biggar, 23. Mason Grady.
England:
1. Genge (capt), 2. Blamire, 3. Stuart, 4. Ribbans, 4. Martin, 6. Ludlam, 7. Pearson, 8. Dombrandt, 9. Care, 10. Smith, 11. Cokanasiga, 12. Porter, 13. Marchant, 14. Malins, 15. Steward, 16. Dan, 17. Rodd, 18. Sinckler, 19. Hill, 20. T Willis, 21. Van Poortvliet, 22. Ford, 23. Slade
Thoughts
Both Wales and England installed new coaches at the same time, and had bad Six Nations on the back of it, although for different reasons. Borthwick had a fairly stable squad, Gatland rotated his match day XXIII and especially his starting XV with every game as he desperately tried to refamiliarise himself with the players.
Gatland had a clear plan. The issue was more that the players didn’t know each other so they weren’t supporting each other properly but you could see they understood the plan. Borthwick’s squad didn’t seem to understand the assignment; it was hard to pick out an identity or a plan that they were playing to.
Some of Gatland’s efforts have gone for naught as age, injuries and the cash crisis in Wales have caused a huge rash of retirements before the World Cup starts. However, all of that stopped long enough ago that he’s had the same squad for a while so hopefully the squad will play like they know who the guys to the left and right are.
Gatland has continued with his policy of selecting new faces – there are three uncapped players in the 23, including both starting props. However, you’d be hard pressed to say this is not a “form selection” for all it’s a young selection. Llewellyn at 12 is a player in the mould of Jordie Barrett, but those of you that remember the Gatland of old will also say he’s in the mould of Jamie Roberts. Given Gatland has already said he will be rotating the captain’s armband over the three tests, I suspect we’ll see quite a bit of squad rotation for the next game too as Gatland finalises his selections.
Borthwick appears to have taken a leaf out of Gatland’s book. Pearson, Dan and Willis are all new caps. Ribbans has 4 caps, Martin only 1. He is a lock/backrow hybrid. We have the recall of Care and Smith as the starting half-backs, van Poortvliet and Ford are sat on the bench. Blamire has a total of 23 senior appearances, 17 for Newcastle and 6 for England.
Predictions
Honestly I don’t have a clue. Both sides are such a mixture of old and new, weird combinations it could go either way. I’m going to give it to Wales by one for home field advantage and nothing more.
