Preview: Wallabies v France 3rd Test

After a scratchy win in Melbourne against the real France test side the Wallabies will want to whitewash them 3-0 and get seven wins in a row before the scary part of the test season starts against the All Blacks and Springboks.

The teams

Australia has chosen a giant pack that will weigh-in at about 935 kgs—bigger than the France eight by about 85 kgs. But if the result in Paris in 2012 is any guide it won’t mean anything if they play small.

With no mobile backrower in the reserves, and an agile lock omitted, it makes the Wallabies even more unbalanced and vulnerable than it was in Melbourne.

They have chosen the same starting back line for the third test in a row, which could be a signature of the new coaching regime.

France has kept its same small forward pack except for changing one mobile flanker with another. They have also replaced a winger and tweaked its bench.

The Players

The Wallabies

Australia made four changes to their second test side.

Giant lock Will Skelton starts at his home ground for a Wallabies’ audition as James Horwill reverts to the bench, and Luke Jones drops out of the matchday group. No. 8 Wycliff Palu returns from injury and Ben McCalman becomes a reserve, displacing Scott Higginbotham.

Loosehead prop Scott Sio is rotated onto the bench at the expense of Pek Cowan, and Rob Horne comes in for the injured Pat McCabe as a replacement back.

Apart from injury considerations the changes are exploratory. This is scarcely fair to Jones and veteran Horwill; no. 8 McCalman could be aggrieved after his fine performance last week also. But they will have to suck it up because that’s what coaches do during inbound tests, especially the year before a Rugby World Cup.

Skelton has wowed the Sydney home crowd a few times this season for the Waratahs and they will be hoping to see a few French connections in the tight stuff at the test match.

That would be fun, but of more interest to rugby heads will be how he fits into the balance of the forwards and in the lineouts in particular. He won’t be hoisted a lot and his footwork back and fro in the lineout choreography won’t be twinkle-toed, but he will lift OK, and high too. And Kepu, the tighthead prop, will appreciate his presence behind him in the scrums.

 Les Bleus

France have kept their inexperienced props in their run-on team. In hindsight, the elevation by Philippe Saint-André of 1. Alexandre Menini, and 3. Rabah Slimani, was a masterstroke: not a word often associated with the France coach.

Louis Picamoles – expect to see him earlier in Sydney

They compared well with their better-known Aussie opponents who they saw being penalised twice in seven scrums during their 50-minute shift, yet they didn’t have a run-on test match between them beforehand.

The starting of lightweight lock Alexandre Flanquart was also a success: nobody mentioned he was too light to be playing test rugby because he played bigger than big bopper Sébastien Vahaamahina did the week before.

The swapping of flanker Yannick Nyanga for Fulgence Ouedraogo is like for like. The France cadre of matchday forwards will be raiders instead of bashers, with Nyanga going to the bench displacing the bigger Antoine Burban.

Again Saint-André has not chosen Louis Picamoles in the XV to get a bit of size in the backrow.  He could have started as blindside flanker, as he did in the last Six Nations’ game, but expect to see him used earlier than he was last week.

The starting back line is the same except that Hugo Bonneval, who was the fullback in the first test, replaces winger Maxime Médard, who looked slow chasing the ball which Foley grounded for a 22 dropout.

Scrumhalf Mogan Parra is retained in the starting side despite some ragged passing in the second test, but Frédéric Michalak is replaced on the bench by reserve scrummie Maxime Machenaud.

Parra will play flyhalf if Rémi Talès is injured.

 Rémi Talès – France flyhalf

The Form

The Wallabies

Australia had it’s normal stuttering first game of the season in the second test this time, but it was the first real “test” anyway because France played some scrubbers at Suncorp.

They could not find space with their kicking game since their flyhalf and inside centre were out-of-sorts. Nor did the Jake-ball kick-and-hope contests work in their favour. Kicks were often too short, which was not too bad if the catcher was hassled, but the kick-chase was patchy. Moreover the coverage at the back when kickers chased the ball upfield was not diligent.

They could not get over the advantage line as much as they did at Suncorp with a real France test team defending with starch, and sometimes there was the old problem of slow support for ball runners.

Les Bleus

France was impressive at the breakdown last week: they elected to contest on more occasions than they did in Brisbane, and they tackled better.  Skipper Thierry Dusautor made a huge impact in both those elements of rugby. 

They made more breaks than the Wallabies did, but they suffered from bad handling under pressure, and even without it.

One of their four scrums was messy but they forced a penalty in one of the Wallabies’ nine. Their lineout was good: they lost two of their 22 contested lineout throws but got one back in mitigation, and only one throw was not straight.