France will appear to approach the first test with a shrug of the shoulders attitude and an unusual team, but there will a steely resolve behind the French mask of insouciance.
None of Les Bleus will fear the Wallabies after they embarrassed them in 2012, in the scrums and elsewhere, to win 33-6 in Paris the last time they played.
The Wallabies will target a 3-0 home series outcome as they had against Wales in 2012, but each test was a close-run thing and this series could be the same.
The teams
Wallabies
The change in “ownership” of the selection of the Wallabies was a cleansing experience and Head Coach Ewen McKenzie chose his squad on Super Rugby form with scant respect for reputations.
But the way he pigeon-holed his backline players in the squad seemed odd. He selected both Bernard Foley and Kurtley Beale for the flyhalf spot and denied himself the option of using the two together, yet they were rainmakers as a combination for the Waratahs. And he categorised the best Aussie centre in Super Rugby this season, Adam Ashley-Cooper, as a winger.
Adam Ashley-Cooper – the winger
France
Coach Philippe Saint-André has given the Wallabies a significant advantage for the first test.
He has rested all the players who appeared in the Top 14 final last weekend, except for a couple of backs on the bench. He also brought two under-done flankers to Australia: Thierry Dusautoir and Yannick Nyanga, who have have played only a few hours between them since they were injured early in 2014.
Neither are match-fit enough to play in the test match—and Dusautoir is the skipper.
And some of his squad haven’t played since the end of the regular season at the beginning of May and are rusty already.
The form
There is no form guide because the Wallabies haven’t played since November, nor has France since the middle of March.
By the end of their spring tour Australia was playing some of their best rugby in recent years.
In Six Nations France beat England but got thrashed by Wales. Their finest match was against Ireland in the last game of the tournament, when they lost a cracking contest on a late forward pass decision.
If they play with that form they could win the series, but if they perform like they did in their squeaky win against Scotland the week before, they won’t win a test match.
Nic White – it’s the right time
The Players
Wallabies
McKenzie had to make tough decisions on his matchday team. It was a wrench for him to drop improving scrumhalf Will Genia from the 23, but Nic White and Nick Phipps had been playing well for longer, and it was better to start White against France than against the All Blacks or Springboks.
Foley was nominated as flyhalf and Matt Toomua, inside centre. Toomua played well at 10 for the Brumbies, but was outstanding in the 12 jersey for the Wallabies on their 2103 spring tour before he was injured.
Outside centre Tevita Kuridrani combined well with Toomua in general play in Super Rugby, but his selection owed something to the unavailability of some wingers and the consequent need to give Ashlely-Cooper an outside berth.
The second surprise, after the Genia bombshell, was the elevation of rookie Sam Carter to start in the second row. A bit of Scott Fardy has rubbed off on this lad at the Brumbies and he won’t step backwards. James Horwill was expected to be given a reprieve because of the virtual withdrawal of Kane Douglas, but he will be on the bench. Fardy was chosen in his best test position: on the blindside flank.
Sam Carter – second row bolter
Wycliff Palu earned his starting no. 8 spot in recent weeks, Ben McCalman got chosen as backrow reserve, and Scott Higginbotham was not chosen in the 23. There was a chance that veteran Matt Hodgson would get a matchday spot to cover backrow injuries, but he was omitted.
The standard of the bench props is a concern. Looseheap prop [LHP] Scott Sio was overlooked for Pek Cowan, who I last saw in a test three years ago coming off the bench in Sydney to play flanker, but it shows an appreciation of the excellent Force scrum. Reserve tighthead prop [THP] Paddy Ryan was called in when Ben Alexander had to withdraw, but he has been too easy a target for LHPs this year.
The rest of the bench is first-rate and Beale and Pat McCabe are outstanding utility players.
France
The touring squad lacks only three of their first-choice players. Although this group is solid if everybody is match-fit, their side for the first test is not. It will be a shadow of a French matchday team.
The starting front row will be fine even though their best two hookers, Dimitri Szarzewski and Benjamin Kayser, are crocked at home. Old warhorse lock Pascal Papé is left behind to rest, but the starting second rowers for Suncorp are strong fellows—however Sébastien Vahaamahina is not a regular starter.
The backrow is undistinguished by France standards though no. 8 Damien Chouly has been in prime form for Clermont this season. Folks may wonder why Louis Picamoles, the scorer of the dodgy obstruction try in 2012 is not in the matchday squad: he is touring but he hasn’t been in his normal bullying form this year. Chouly was preferred at the back of Six Nations
Damien Chouly – in prime form
Scrumhalf Maxime Machenaud is one of the best in Europe but his partner Frédéric Michalak, who plays either 9 or 10, couldn’t even get onto the Toulon bench in the Top 14 final as a utility, and hasn’t played for a month anyway because they didn’t need him.
Another oddity for the Brisbane test is that Morgan Parra has to cover for injuries to both the scrumhalf and flyhalf. The only specialist flyhalf in the whole squad, Rémi Talès, will be sitting in the stands, tired from the Top 14 final maybe but as fit as a fiddle.
Winger Yoann Huget is the best in the country but the other winger, Felix le Bourhis, is on debut and is hardly a household name in France—and is a centre anyway. Hugo Bonneval is a nice style of fullback for Stade Français but he played his two tests for France on the wing. He is no Brice Dulin (who is on the bench) but nobody else in France is either.
Aussies will be interested in watching reserve hooker Christopher Tolofua for the first time, when he gets on the park. He is a destructive runner but you wouldn’t want him in your darts team because he is a sprayer.
The Wallaby props will be happy to see reserve prop Vincent Debaty when he comes from the bench because he’s a big mother and taller than they are.
Bench backs Rémi Lamerat and Dulin are class but Aussies will hope it will be too late by the time they get on.
Vincent Debaty – Aussie props will be glad to see the big mother
The Plans
Australia won’t beat the France scrum on technique or sneakiness after the shove so they have to get the timing of the set and the shove just right, as the Western Force do more often than not.
Vice-captain Michael Hooper should be provided with a script to whinge to referee Craig Joubert about what the French front rowers are doing in the scrum, even if they aren’t.
McKenzie will have a few plans against a goofy-looking France side but the main things he will be looking for in his first real team, are to get the basics right and to combine well.
And he should get Nic White to snipe more than he does and even drift a bit with straight runners on the move.
He will also have his boys test debut winger le Bourhis with high balls, preferably with Israel Folau or Ashley-Cooper chasing, but kick none to Huget on the other side.
France will want to demolish the Wallaby scrum as they did in the last meeting, in the manner mentioned below. Saint-André will also get his men to play a high tempo game with their ball and use their confusing pin-ball short passing and off-loading.
He will also have his lads hassle new halves’ pairing White and Foley so they don’t get a chance to click.
At the same time he will warn his players to be more disciplined than they were in Six Nations.
Thomas Domingo – problem short-arse
The matchups
The front rows
Short-arsed LHP Thomas Domingo is only 178 cms tall and will naturally shove up against Kepu and Ryan who are 15 cms taller, and he will drive in as well. It won’t be so bad for James Slipper and Cowan against Nicolas Mas, but both of the French starting props and rake Guilhem Guirado are known for squeezing the opposing hooker on his put-ins and have to be stopped without having to rely on Joubert for justice.
It is a pity that Steve Walsh can’t be refereeing this game because he pinged Domingo three times in the first half in France’s last test match and Saint-André hooked him at half time.
The centres
One of the strengths of the France squad is their midfield. Although Lamerat will be on the bench, and Mathieu Bastareaud won’t be playing at all, their most athletic and elusive centres, Wesley Fofana and Gaël Fickou, will be running on.
Aussies fans will remember Fofana’s excellent try in 2012 with a shudder.
Toomua and Kuridrani are different players to the French centres. Toomua will be like a second flyhalf and will scan the geometry of the field and the distribution of players on it, both theirs and his, whereas Fofana will be looking to the main chance for himself or his immediate neighbour.
Fickou is much the same as Fofana but Kuridrani, though he can find a gap on his day, will want to brutalise his centre opponents whether he has the ball or they do.
The flankers
The battle of these loosies will be intriguing.
France usually play their flankers on the same side of the scrum for the whole game but Bernard le Roux is a big mother lineout guy and could play on the blindside exclusively as Fardy will for the Wallabies. He is a typical South African brutal flanker but without the smarts of the Aussie.
Scott Fardy – smart Aussie
Fulgence Ouedraogo is a workhorse French all-rounder type flanker and not bad in the lineout himself. The French have no flanker of the Hooper type in the whole country who is half-way decent. No wonder Saint-André fears him.
Prediction
France toured New Zealand last year and played their best game first-up before fading away in the other two. This year their team will be stronger in the second and third tests than in Brisbane.
I was confident that the Wallabies would win the last time they played (and they got thrashed) but I can’t see this particular French test team doing the same thing to them.
Wallabies by 12
Team Lists
Australia — 1 James Slipper, 2 Stephen Moore (c), 3 Sekope Kepu, 4 Rob Simmons, 5 Sam Carter, 6 Scott Fardy, 7 Michael Hooper, 8 Wycliff Palu, 9 Nic White, 10. Bernard Foley, 11 Nick Cummins, 12 Matt Toomua, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 15 Israel Folau.
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Pek Cowan, 18 Paddy Ryan, 19 James Horwill, 20 Ben McCalman, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Kurtley Beale, 23 Pat McCabe.
France — 1 Thomas Domingo, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 3 Nicolas Mas (c), 4 Sébastien Vahaamahina, 5 Yoann Maestri, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 7 Bernard le Roux, 8 Damien Chouly, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 10 Frederic Michalak, 11 Felix le Bourhis, 12 Wesley Fofana, 13 Gaël Fickou, 14 Yoann Huget, 15 Hugo Bonneval.
Replacements:16 Christopher Tolofua, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Alexandre Flanquart, 20 Antoine Burban, 21 Morgan Parra, 22 Remi Lamerat, 23 Brice Dulin.
Match Details
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Date/Time: Saturday 7 June, 2014 8pm (local time)
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Garratt Williamson (New Zealand)
Television match official: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
Assessor: Lyndon Bray (New Zealand)
