Gatland wary of ‘wounded’ France

Six Nations: FRANCE v WALES
Venue: Stade de France, Paris Date: Sat, 19 March Kick-off: 1945 GMT
Coverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC One HD & online from 1930-2200; Listen on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru & BBC Radio 5 Live; Text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles

Gatland guided Wales to victory in Stade de France in 2005

Wales coach Warren Gatland believes France will be like “a wounded bull” in Saturday night’s Six Nations finale.

Wales face a France side which lost 22-21 in Italy, sparking their coach Marc Lievremont to slam his players.

Lievremont said his team “lacked courage” and proceeded to make five changes to the side which faces Wales.

“When a team have a performance they are embarrassed about they are like a wounded bull and come back really firing,” warned Gatland.

“I think it’s going to be more difficult for us, to be honest.

“And for the players that have come in they will see this as a great opportunity to stamp their mark on the match and put themselves forward for World Cup selection.

“We are expecting a really tough, physical French team to turn up.

“We played them two years ago. We were surprised tactically the way they played.

“They were very aggressive defensively. There were a lot of pick and goes. They didn’t play a lot of rugby against us and narrowed their game.

“So, they may do the same again on Saturday and really try and take us on physically.”

Gatland is expecting a backlash as France come into the game on the back of two straight away defeats.

They lost to England 17-9 in Twickenham before going down to the Azzurri in the Stadio Flaminio last weekend.

After the Rome match – France’s first defeat to Italy – Lievremont tore into his players, calling them “cowards” and saying some players had played their last game in a France jersey.

He later apologised but still changed a third of his side, bringing in Damien Traille and David Marty at centre, Alexis Palisson on the left wing, Imanol Harinordoquy at number eight and Thomas Domingo in the front row.

“In terms of the turmoil, I’m not that good at French and so I can’t really understand… what’s actually being said, and I’ll let them concentrate on their internal politics and we have just got to concentrate on ourselves,” added Gatland.

Wales head to Paris with a three wins-three defeats ratio from their last six visits.

And Gatland is convinced Wales now have the physical presence to compete with France, as well as the top three from the southern hemisphere.

“We can take a great amount of confidence in the squad and what we have been working hard on the last two or three years is the amount of work we have done in the gym and the physicality and how fit we are as a side,” insisted the New Zealander.

“That has definitely been a priority and I’ve stressed that. To compete against the top five or six teams in the world you have got to compete with them physically.

“We are still not close enough in terms of beating them regularly but we feel we have definitely closed the gap physically and putting ourselves in a position that we can go out and play some rugby.”

France: Maxime Medard (Toulouse); Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), David Marty (Perpignan), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Alexis Palisson (Brive); Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Morgan Parra (Clermont); Thomas Domingo (Clermont), William Servat (Toulouse), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Metro), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), JulienBonnaire (Clermont), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz).
Replacements: Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Pascal Pape (Stade Francais), Alexandre Lapandry (Clermont), JulienTomas, (Montpellier), Fabrice Estebanez (Brive), Yoann Huget (Bayonne).

Wales: Lee Byrne (Ospreys); Leigh Halfpenny (Blues), Jamie Roberts (Blues), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), George North (Scarlets); James Hook (Ospreys), Mike Phillips (Ospreys); Paul James (Ospreys), Matthew Rees (Scarlets, capt), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Bradley Davies (Blues), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Dragons), Sam Warburton (Blues), Ryan Jones (Ospreys).
Replacements: Richard Hibbard (Ospreys), John Yapp (Blues), Jonathan Thomas (Ospreys), Rob McCusker (Scarlets), Dwayne Peel (Sale Sharks), Stephen Jones (Scarlets), Morgan Stoddart (Scarlets).

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa).