Wales ‘need to be smarter’ to have chance against French flair

Crushed by England in their Six Nations opener at Twickenham last weekend, Wales return home to Cardiff on Sunday to face the might of a French team that has its eyes set on a Grand Slam.

It is a daunting prospect given the way Fabien Galthie’s young side swatted away Ireland 36-14 in the tournament opener in Paris.

AFP Sports picks out three areas which could prove pivotal at the Principality Stadium:

Le French Flair

France coach Galthie is consciously following the example of Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and building himself a broad squad, any one of whom will be experienced enough to step up at next year’s World Cup.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey, still only 22 and affectionately known as LBB, was one of the first to benefit as a teenager and now has 22 tries from 23 Tests, including two against the Irish in the opener.

Galthie raised eyebrows by leaving out some experienced players against Ireland and he has maintained that against Wales, turning to youth once more to cover the injuries to centres Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana and Kalvin Gourgues.

Instead of reaching for the 98-cap Gael Fickou, he has handed a first Test to 20-year-old Fabien Brau-Boirie (FBB) who will team up with his 22-year-old Pau partner Emilien Gailleton.

“The fact that they play together regularly, and train together, creates greater understanding, which, in those instinctive moments, whether in attack or defence, adds a special connection,” said Galthie.

Just pity the commentator who has Brau-Boirie passing to Bielle-Biarrey; perhaps it will simply be “FBB to LBB”.

Wales need to be ‘smarter’

Wales were poor in just about everything they tried at Twickenham as they were trounced 48-7 by England.

Not just poor in execution; their play was lacking in thought and occasionally defied reason.

Four yellow cards — two in the space of 40 seconds — and a slew of penalties were bad enough but the sight of captain Dewi Lake forgetting to tap a penalty before going on the charge at the England line produced a deafening collective groan across the Principality.

“We’ve got to be smarter,” said a frustrated Steve Tandy who responded by making four changes to his line-up.

“We are not South Africa, we are not one of the biggest teams in the world, so we’ve got to be smart, play rugby and hold the ball.

“We are not going to go straight through France. Look at their size and 6-2 bench, so we have to play smart around how we attack the game.”

Tandy has beefed up the pack by bringing in Leicester backrow forward Olly Cracknell as well as props Rhys Carre and Tomas Francis while Joe Hawkins comes in for Ben Thomas at inside centre.

Francis is the only starting survivor of the last Welsh team to beat France in Cardiff – a 14-13 arm-wrestle in 2018.

If history is against the Welsh, so is the form book: it is three years since they last won in the Six Nations and they have now lost 22 of their last 24 matches.

Empty stadium

“We are going to see 80,000 Welshmen pushing their team on,” said Galthie this week as he played down suggestions that the home side would be an easy touch.

It’s true that two years ago, the same Wales v France fixture was held on a Sunday and attracted a crowd of 71,242.

However, Galthie may have been overegging the relish with which the Welsh public like to see their dragons put to the sword.

They haven’t celebrated a home win in the Six Nations since beating Scotland in 2022. Last season they were flattened 68-14 by England, a record defeat that fell quickly when South Africa smashed them 73-0 in the autumn.

This year, with a general malaise surrounding the future of rugby in Wales, the public may be finding better things to do on a Sunday afternoon.

On Friday morning there were still 15,300 tickets unsold for the match, according to the official ticket site.

A number of tickets were also on offer on the WRU’s official resale platform at less than half their original value.

Sales are also down for Wales’ home games against Scotland and Italy.