England v France
Venue: Twickenham
Kick-off: 4.50pm
TV: Live on RTÉ and UTV
This is not yet the greatest England team of all time but the statisticians may soon beg to differ. Find a way past France's giant roadblock of a pack and the Six Nations champions will have won 15 Tests back-to-back, the longest sequence since they began internationals in 1871. Everyone has studiously avoided the subject this week but, rest assured, it is in the back of numerous minds.
The last English team to reach 14 victories was the 2002-03 vintage and the sight of both Jonny Wilkinson and Richard Hill at final training in the wintry Twickenham sunshine reinforced the sense of déjà vu. It was France who ended England’s previous long unbeaten run in Marseille in a World Cup warm-up game 14 summers ago and it is not impossible Les Bleus could be spoilsports again.
Even though the weather forecast has improved, the French forwards are big and ugly enough to drag their hosts into a close-quarter slugging match. Eddie Jones remains confident his side will prove fitter over 80 minutes but it is the first 20 where England need to be wary. Go 10 points down early or lose a man to the bin for a fractionally mistimed tackle and France's failure to win a championship game in London since 2005 will have little relevance.
Kicking tee
Ben Youngs was a teenager sitting in the West Stand with his father on that distant day when Dimitri Yachvili, using a kicking tee bought from a local shop having broken his own during the captain’s run, put the boot into Andy Robinson’s England from all angles. The French have not come within eight points of winning at Twickenham since but, under the peppery Guy Novès, there is a desire to play with more tempo and jettison the plodding mediocrity of recent seasons.
England will certainly be wary of the impressive visiting skipper Guilhem Guirado, the mountainous Uini Atonio and, in particular, the no-nonsense backrow of Damien Chouly, Kevin Gourdon and Northampton's bullocking Louis Picamoles. England's forwards are hardly midgets but without the brothers Vunipola, George Kruis and Chris Robshaw there is not quite the same muscular certainty. Should the milk-guzzling Joe Marler come through strong on his improbable return from a fractured leg, it will be one hell of an advertisement for the bone-healing properties of creamy gold top.
The fallback option is to kick everything into Row Z and invite Maro Itoje, starting in the number six jersey for the first time, to disrupt France's rhythm and confidence. England's unusually well-stocked lineout must be an area of possible advantage, particularly if pressure can also be applied to the youthful scrumhalf Baptiste Serin on his Six Nations debut. Then there is Owen Farrell's goal-kicking, perhaps the single biggest reason to suspect England will scramble home. If anyone is equipped to steer England out of potential trouble it is the prolific Saracen.
Specialist opinion
With Kruis now seeking a second specialist opinion on his damaged knee ligaments, Jones will also be looking to Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes to replicate their sizeable autumn contributions. This week's references to past Anglo-French military conflicts are just another way of ensuring England's forwards do not expect Novès's team to be laissez-faire or purely fixated on flair.
“Anyone who’s played against his Toulouse sides or watched them carefully knows they’ve always had this hard edge,” Jones said. “It was based on a brutal forward pack which took the ball forward and created space. They’re still as brutal. What doesn’t happen is all the illegal stuff.”
England may have lost at home just once on the opening weekend since 2000 but this latest edition is not a foregone conclusion. There is a good reason why no country has ever won successive Grand Slams; a French degree is not required to recognise the visitors’ desire to drag the champs back down to earth. There is a debate about what music should be blasted out when the home team score but England crave a different sort of record.
ENGLAND: Mike Brown; Jonny May, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, Elliot Daly; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Joe Marler, Dylan Hartley (capt), Dan Cole; Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes; Maro Itoje, Tom Wood, Nathan Hughes.
Replacements: Jamie George, Matt Mullan, Kyle Sinckler, Teimana Harrison, James Haskell, Danny Care, Ben Te'o, Jack Nowell.
FRANCE: Scott Spedding; Noa Nakaitaci, Remi Lamerat, Gael Fickou, Virimi Vakatawa; Camille Lopez, Baptiste Serin; Cyril Baille, Guilhem Guirado (capt), Uini Atonio; Sebastien Vahaamahina, Yoann Maestri; Damien Chouly, Kevin Gourdon, Louis Picamoles.
Replacements: Clement Maynadier, Rabah Slimani, Xavier Chiocci, Arthur Iturria, Loann Goujon, Maxime Machenaud, Jean Marc Doussain, Yoann Huget.
(Guardian Service)
