{"id":34504,"date":"2013-02-23T14:10:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T12:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=34504"},"modified":"2013-02-23T14:10:32","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T12:10:32","slug":"england-vs-franceengland-ready-for-kicking-france-in-twickenham-preview-six-nations-cup-news-34504","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/england-vs-franceengland-ready-for-kicking-france-in-twickenham-preview-six-nations-cup-news-34504\/","title":{"rendered":"England vs France:England ready for kicking France in Twickenham, preview \/ Six Nations Cup News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Catt’s confidence is born of England’s contrasting victories over Scotland and Ireland, which has seen them installed as favourites for the Six Nations title.<\/h1>\n

Stuart Lancaster’s men have made a fine start to the 2013 competition with wins over Scotland and Ireland, but it is a different story for France.<\/p>\n

The pre-tournament favourites are without a victory from their opening games after following a shock defeat to Italy and they followed up that result with a 16-6 loss to Wales on home soil.<\/p>\n

Should France lose to England it will also be the first time since 2001 that they have lost three matches in a campaign. It would also be their fifth consecutive loss in the Six Nations, making it their worst losing streak since 1958.<\/p>\n

However Lancaster, who has recalled Manu Tuilagi, Dylan Hartley and Courtney Lawes, has warned his side against complacency, stating France are still capable of pulling off an upset at Twickenham.<\/p>\n

“It’s interesting to see the French team and the changes they’ve made. It’s clearly a high quality French side coming to Twickenham and we’re really looking forward to the game,” said Lancaster.<\/p>\n

Phillipe Saint-Andre\u2019s reign so far suggests that Marc Lievremont may not be such a bad coach after all.<\/p>\n

Lievremont\u2019s tenure also got under way in a blaze of stylish suits and perfect rugby before becoming a bizarre spectacle, albeit with the odd spectacular performance thrown in.<\/p>\n

It is that tendency to follow the ridiculous with the utterly sublime that England and Stuart Lancaster must fear today.<\/p>\n

French rugby is never more to be feared than when its players have been shamed.<\/p>\n

The French selection also gives them a chance of significantly upping their performance.<\/p>\n

Francois Trinh-Duc now looks like a relatively successful project of the Lievremont era and, with the brilliant Morgan Parra alongside at scrum-half, there is a far greater possibility that the quality in the centres and on the wings will be released properly.<\/p>\n

The concern is that up front, Saint-Andre has persisted with the plodding Louis Picamoles.<\/p>\n

A fine player behind a dominant pack, his ability to contribute to a French eight that is getting outworked at the coalface is less certain.<\/p>\n

There are far fewer doubts about England\u2019s consistency after a year of solid progress under Stuart Lancaster and as the ultimate pragmatist, the English coach is unlikely to fear any mysterious \u2018mercurial quality\u2019.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s execution of the basics and their implementation of the perfect gameplan for the situation against Ireland indicates that this is a coaching team and a squad to be respected.<\/p>\n

And Lancaster has not been afraid to mix up his selection, replacing skilful ball handlers with bruisers and bringing his best athletes into the starting XV.<\/p>\n

Courtney Lawes performance against Ireland was devastatingly effective, and England will hope for a similar impact from both him and the powerful Manu Tuilagi in the backline.<\/p>\n

The selection of Dylan Hartley is a risk. The Northampton hooker is abrasive and brings extra size, but the chance his mean streak will cost England at some point cannot be discounted.<\/p>\n

The keys to victory, as shown by Italy and Wales, are discipline, work-rate and high tempo.<\/p>\n

England have all those and, in Tuilagi, an attacking weapon capable of turning the smallest cracks in a defensive structure into gaping holes.<\/p>\n

England vs France Match prediction<\/strong>: England 25-14<\/h2>\n

England team to play France, Twickenham 17.00:\u00a0<\/strong>15 A Goode, 14 C Ashton, 13 M Tuilagi, 12 B Barritt, 11 M Brown, 10 O Farrell, 9 B Youngs, 1 J Marler, 2 D Hartley, 3 D Cole, 4 J Launchbury, 5 G Parling, 6 C Lawes, 7 C Robshaw, 8 T Wood.<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/strong>\u00a016 T Youngs, 17 D Wilson, 18 M Vunipola, 19 J Haskell, 20 T Waldrom, 21 D Care, 22 T Flood, 23 B Twelvetrees<\/p>\n

France:\u00a0<\/strong>15 Y Huget, 14 V Clerc, 13 M Bastareaud, 12 W Fofana, 11 B Fall, 10 F Trinh-Duc, 9 M Parra, 8 L Picamoles, 7 Y Nyanga, 6 T Dusautoir (capt); 5 Y Maestri, 4 C Samson, 3 N Mas, 2 B Kayser, 1 T Domingo.<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/strong>\u00a016 D Szarzewski, 17 V Debaty, 18 L Ducalcon, 19 J Suta, 20 A Claassen, 21 M Machenaud, 22 F Michalak, 23 F Fritz<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 14)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catt’s confidence is born of England’s contrasting victories over Scotland and Ireland, which has seen them installed as favourites for the Six Nations title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36047,80,63,17,1,118,146,127,14],"tags":[46572,46575,46574,1955,46569,46566,46565,960,46573,9551,77178,46562,46563,46571,46567],"class_list":["post-34504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-europe","category-general","category-hot","category-rugby","category-sport","category-world","tag-2013-six-nations","tag-dylan-hartley-england","tag-engalnd-kick-france-twickenham","tag-england","tag-england-favourites-for-six-nations","tag-england-ready-kick-france","tag-england-vs-france","tag-france","tag-match-prediction","tag-preview","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-six-nations-cup","tag-stuart-lancaster","tag-twickenham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}