If we can keep them at bay for the first 20 minutes and turn the crowd on the French we will take it imo - their unpredictability is their big asset next week.

Set pieces will be vital too for us ... we cannot let the good work of recent times count for nothing, mauling the French over and past the game line would create space out wide to create mayhem as they will fear being mauled across the line. The breakdown is vital too, we have to not only compete but clear out french bodies driving them back akin to the New Zealand match - we drove back the Kiwi's so we can drive back the french if the will and temperament is there.

Not a good weekend for the Welsh teams, they have now lost at U20, Students, Women, Senior and Sevens level to England

Wales should have got in his face more I suppose

Get in England!!

http://balls.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/letter.png

Major Respect to the Welsh RFU!

It's not even the lack of a plan B that's the problem for Wales, it's the lack of variation. Good teams know we're going to send Roberts crashing down the 10-12 channel so they pack it with tacklers, so use JR as a dummy runner and put the ball behind him.

Teams know we always go to the blind side and pack it with defenders, so pick and drive until they are forced to commit those defenders to the fringes and THEN go blind.

Today England were up quickly and flat in defence all day, was there one chip over the top or (decent) grubber all game?

Best team won today.

Twice!

To sum that up from a Welsh perspective, awful

Kicking the ball away much too often, very sluggish when the ball was kicked away and hardly any pressure on England when they caught the ball

Lucky we had Halfpenny on form with the penalties or that could have got very ugly

1/2d played like a god today. It's just a shame that his bonkers kamikaze tackles rarely turn out to be match winners.

The amount of dropped balls from Wales inside the English 22 was noticeable too - it must have happened about 4 or 5 times, just as Wales looked like creating something the ball would be lost forward... a day to forget for Wales in every department.

403 Forbidden

That's amazing working here - try his official twitter account - (his latest post) https://twitter.com/BrianODriscoll

Cheers, must be a country thing that blocked it.

Blimey out for season after that tackle on Burrell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/26505365

Shades of JPR in 1976

I know

Terrible case of butterfingers today.
Gatland didn't seem too fussed at the end though, and seemed to be quite congratulatory (for once) on the losing score. Very odd I thought.

Onwards and upwards!

Thanks irishfeen, I can see this but not the other linky.

Nice of the WRU to send him best wishes. I think he is specially admired everywhere.

1/2d - had to work that out; love it!

I still struggle to see why Ireland are odds on to win the Championship

Are they really favourites to win away in Paris?

Argh

Yes because they are on a roll and playing wonderfully, whereas France are very hit-and-miss atm.
France has an infuriating habit of pulling it off when least expected though, so who knows.

You're surely on a wind-up?

Have you seen Ireland play?

Have you seen France play?

Ireland will spank France even if the Irish plane accidentally lands in Tegucigalpa and they have to field a team of elderly potato farmers in Paris.

A team of me, you, my nan, Stephen Hawking and Rhys Priestland could beat France at the moment. (Ok, Rhys Priestland is taking things a bit too far but you know what I mean.)

I dunno why people go on about Farrell's indiscipline when Brown has had more barney's this tournament. Great win by England today, shame we're not going for a grand slam next week.

Championship is Ireland's for the taking, but the stats point to only one win in 40 years for Irish in France.

The shocking thing is even though France have been as awful as you say they are still on the same points as 2 other teams at the top going into the final game. Doesn't say much for the tournament really. This French squad should be clearing up this tournament.