This and the backline that really started to show promise in the second half of the Italian game, could leave Ireland leaving Paris in sombre mood.

15-Maxime Medard, 14-Vincent Clerc, 13-Aurelien Rougerie, 12-Wesley Fofana, 11-Julien Malzieu, 10-Francois Trinh-Duc, 9-Dimitri Yachvili, 8-Louis Picamoles, 7-Imanol Harinordoquy, 6-Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5-Yoann Maestri, 4-Pascal Pape, 3-Nicolas Mas, 2-Dimitri Szarzewski, 1-Jean-Baptiste Poux.

Replacements: 16-William Servat, 17- Vincent Debaty, 18-Lionel Nallet, 19-Julien Bonnaire, 20-Morgan Parra, 21-Lionel Beauxis, 22-Maxime Mermoz

bookies

Paddy Power are offering a fairly ‘generous’ 2/1 on the three favourites France, England and Scotland to get the result.

If you fancy a bit more value for your money why not have a go on the points handicap. For those of you thinking… What is a points handicap? this explanation should help

For those of you who aren’t Paddy Power are offering this little gem at 8/1;

Italy +21

England -2

Wales +5

For those of you, like myself, are looking upon this weekends rugby as you might look upon this evenings lottery draw might fancy the following, Paddy Power are offering 227/1 on this selection of (fairly unlikely) outcomes;

Be quick though, two of those games kick off in half an hour, good luck!

15 Leigh HALFPENNY, 14 Alex CUTHBERT, 13 Jonathan DAVIES,12 Jamie ROBERTS, 11 George NORTH, 10 Rhys PRIESTLAND, 9 Mike PHILLIPS

1 Rhys GILL, 2 Huw BENNETT, 3 Adam JONES, 4 Bradley DAVIES, 5 Ian EVANS, 6 Ryan JONES, 7 Sam WARBURTON ©, 8 Toby FALETAU

Reps: OWENS, JAMES, POWELL, TIPURIC, WILLIAMS, WILLIAMS

Excitingly though, they’ve gone for a debut in the back row, some youth and exuberance no doubt? No the 30 year old Phil Dowson makes an appearance. He gets in, as Stuart Lancaster describes it, because “He deserves it” which “is a big thing for me” apparently. Shame Declan Kidney goes on things like talent and ability, otherwise I’d be dusting off my boots and trying reeeaaally reeaaally hard, until I deserved it too.

Team in full;

Ben Foden; Chris Ashton; Brad Barritt, Owen Farrell, David Strettle; Charlie Hodgson; Ben Youngs; Alex Corbisiero, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole; Mouritz Botha, Tom Palmer; Tom Croft, Chris Robshaw (captain), Phil Dowson.

Replacements: Rob Webber, Matt Stevens, Geoff Parling, Ben Morgan, Lee Dickson, Jordan Turner-Hall, Mike Brown.

Team in full;

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
12 - Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
10 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
9 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster) (capt)
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
19 - Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) *
20 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
21 - Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

Team as follows;

Scotland team:

15-Rory Lamont, 14-Lee Jones, 13-Nick De Luca, 12-Sean Lamont, 11-Max Evans, 10-Dan Parks, 9-Chris Cusiter; 8-David Denton, 7-Ross Rennie, 6-Alasdair Strokosch, 5-Jim Hamilton, 4-Richie Gray, 3-Euan Murray, 2-Ross Ford (captain) 1-Allan Jacobsen.

Replacements: 16-Scott Lawson, 17-Geoff Cross, 18-Alastair Kellock, 19-John Barclay, 20-Mike Blair, 21-Greig Laidlaw, 22-Graeme Morrison.

Whilst doing a bit of research for this post I came across a headline announcing Yachvilli as a doubt for the French. For me this turned a tight game into a nailed on win for Wales. However, the next headline I read tells me that Preistland is out for Wales and has been replaced by James Hook. For me this tips the balance in the other direction. Living in Wales, I know alot about James Hook, mercurial talent, blah de blah de blah de blah. Undoubtedly, he is a talent, but he is also in his late twenties, weak in defence and positionless. There, I said it. Now that’s out of the way, here are the teams:

Wales: Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues); George North (Scarlets), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Jamie Roberts (Cardiff Blues), Shane Williams (Ospreys); James Hook (Perpignan), Mike Phillips (Bayonne); Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Huw Bennett (Ospreys), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Dragons), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Dragons) Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt), Toby Faletau (Dragons).

Replacements: Lloyd Burns (Dragons), Paul James (Ospreys), Bradley Davies (Cardiff Blues), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues), Stephen Jones (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets).

France: Maxime Medard; Vincent Clerc, Aurelien Rougerie, Maxime Mermoz, Alexis Palisson; Morgan Parra, Dimitri Yachvili; Jean-Baptiste Poux, William Servat, Nicolas Mas, Pascal Pape, Lionel Nallet, Thierry Dusautoir (capt), Julien Bonnaire, Imanol Harinordoquy.

Replacements (from): Dimitri Szarzewski, Fabien Barcella, Julien Pierre, Louis Picamoles, Francois Trinh-Duc, David Marty, Cedric Heymans, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Jean-Marc Doussain.

Oh and the tip? Though I firmly believe that James Hook will go along way to losing this game for Wales, I still feel the rest of the side have enough to match the French.  The one thing I’m absolutely certain of is that Vincent Clerc will score. Which is a healthy 5/2 over here.

They didn’t though did they. So we have our mouth drowning contest for Saturday. For which Ireland have named their team, no great surprises, Rory Best faces a last fitness test and Kidney has gone for O’Gara and Murray as halfbacks. Team in full:

Ireland: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), B O’Driscoll (Leinster, capt), G D’Arcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster); R O’Gara (Munster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster) or S Cronin (Leinster), M Ross (Leinster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), P O’Connell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), S O’Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster) or D Varley (Munster), T Court (Ulster), D Ryan (Munster), D Leamy (Munster), E Reddan (Leinster), J Sexton (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster).

The clocks are ticking, there will be some incredible match ups on the day, not least the Hadron Collider of a battle between back rows. Thankfully though, for those of us with an Irish persuasion, we have ROG on our side. Remember This:

This weekend, just in case anyone didn’t notice,  another Ireland victory powered them through to the Quarter Finals of the Rugby World Cup. Without wanting to get too ahead of ourselves its a special time for Irish rugby and a special group of players to boot. Which is all just great.

I started to wonder if the dream came true, how would that occasion be marked? I figured a good old fashioned Hollywood movie with an all star cast would be an entirely appropriate memorial to the acheivement. The big question being just who do Hollywood have on their team sheet that could match up to Ireland’s rugby stars?

I thought of a few to get the ball rolling:

Ronan O'Gara

Colin Farrell

Cian Healy

Jack Black

Rory Best

Jason Statham

Russel Crowe

Brian O'Driscoll

A tribute like this would not be complete without some input from the coaching staff. Likewise an Irish  film is never complete without an appearance from this guy:

Gert Smal

Colm Meaney

Finally, who could play the man who brought all of these talented individuals together? Who has the leadership? the insight? The man management to hold such powerful personalities together? Naturally there is only one choice:

Declan Kidney

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 - Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
10 - Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
9 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
21 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
22 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)