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France call up two players but no sign of MHR bad boy
Fabien Galthie has called up to players to his Guinness Six Nations squad, but there’s no room for Montpellier bad boy Mohamed Haouas.
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Haouas was last week convicted for the 2014 burglary of a number of tobacconists in Montpellier and received an 18-month suspended sentence and fined. A court heard how the 27-year-old was linked to the case after a man who ‘moved like a rugby player’ was captured on CCTV footage during the course of the caper.
Up until the conclusion of the long-running case, the 122kg tighthead had been involved in the national setup, but he’s now apparently been overlooked. Galthie instead has called up Clermont loosehead prop Daniel Bibi Biziwu, as well as Toulouse lock Thibaud Flament.
The Six Nations favourites began their bid for a first title since 2010 with a 37-10 bonus-point win over Italy at a rain-soaked Stade de France, with winger Gabin Villiere running in a hat-trick of tries.
The Azzurri, looking for a first Championship win since 2015 and their first-ever victory in Paris, took a surprise lead on Sunday when teenage debutant Tommaso Menoncello gathered a kick to finish in the corner.
But France struck back with Anthony Jelonch and Villiere tries to take an eight-point lead into halftime.
Villiere carved a path through the Italian defence to cross again after the break before Damian Penaud added the bonus-point score, and Villiere dived over for his third with the clock in the red.
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“You could tell after 20 minutes we were lacking rugby together. Through the game I thought the boys did well,” France team manager Raphael Ibanez told ITV.
“Five tries and five points is good. Villiere is a warrior. He is a very good finisher. He is a good example for all of his teammates for his spirit.”
France are level with Ireland on five points at the top of the table after the opening round, but ahead of them on points difference going into their meeting in Paris next Saturday.
“For next week we have to step up in every department. Ireland are now fourth in world ranking for nothing. The game they played yesterday was good,” Ibanez added.
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Italy face England in Rome next Sunday, where both sides will be looking to respond to opening-day defeats, with Eddie Jones’ England having lost to Scotland.
France kicked off the 2022 Six Nations as the bookies’ favourites, having shone in a November win over New Zealand, but they were without Galthie for the opener following a positive COVID-19 test.
In contrast, not much was expected from an Italy side on a record 32-match Championship losing streak, and Jaminet’s boot soon had the hosts in front.
But the Azzurri, led by New Zealand coach Kieran Crowley for the first time in the Six Nations, quickly responded when Paolo Garbisi’s cross-field kick was plucked out of the air by 19-year-old Menoncello, who dotted down to become the youngest Six Nations try scorer in 55 years.
An impressive start from Italy was undone when Stephen Varney’s poor pass was intercepted by Jelonch for a simple run-in, and Villiere slid in at the corner in the final act of the first half after Garbisi and Melvyn Jaminet traded penalties.
France increased the pressure in the second half, but had to work hard to break down a stubborn Italian defence.
Gregory Alldritt’s sumptuous knee-high offload sent Villiere through for France’s third try, and Penaud opened up a 20-point lead by exchanging passes with French captain Antoine Dupont to pull the Azzurri defence apart.
With the clock in the red, Villiere dived in at the corner to become the first Frenchman to score a Six Nations hat-trick since Vincent Clerc against Ireland in 2008.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments