Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ARE ELECTRIC? IF YOU ALLOW THEM SPACE
JAMES Lowe describes prolific French winger Teddy Thomas as “electric” – but the Racing flyer is in line to lose his place as Fabien Galthie looks to counter Ireland’s aerial threat on Sunday.
Thomas scored again in Les Bleus’ 50-10 rout of Italy in their Six Nations opener last week but Damian Penaud is seen as a safer bet under the high ball bombardment that France expect is coming in Dublin.
In the pack, Dylan Cretin’s place is expected to go to Anthony Jeloch, who is seen as a better fit to counter Tadhg Beirne’s ruck threat as Ireland improved their breakdown work hugely in Sunday’s loss to Wales.
Andy Farrell will hope that skipper Johnny Sexton and pack leader James Ryan complete their return to play protocols and can resume training this morning ahead of being named in the lineup.
In that case, Beirne could be moved to No6 to accommodate Iain Henderson, who had a big impact as Ryan’s 23rd minute replacement in Cardiff.
That would fill the vacancy in the back row caused by Peter O’mahony’s red card last week, with Josh van der Flier or Will
Connors at openside and CJ Stander at No8.
“We’ve got our hands full this week,” said Lowe, who along with Keith Earls will hope to start on the wing again, although Jordan Larmour is pushing hard for a recall.
“It’s expansive footy, isn’t it (from France). Man, they’ve got some terrific athletes.
“Antoine Dupont at No9, Teddy Thomas on the wing.
“The fellah on the other wing (Gabin Villiere), he’s half the size of me and he’s hitting people bigger than me, getting turnovers at the ruck, it’s quite scary to see!
“You don’t normally see that, especially where I try and hang out.
“Dupont’s an amazing player. To me, the world’s best player at the moment.
“He’s the key man and someone that we have to try to limit his damage. He’s the one we’re going for.
“They played very, very well against Italy, scored some amazing tries and defended very, very well.
“A lot of line speed so we’ll try and implement that throughout the week and we’ll put our best foot forward and try to knock them over.”