Scottish Daily Mail

KEEP CALM ... AND WIN THE SLAM

WELSH MUST DRAW ON EXPERIENCE TO FINISH THE JOB AGAINST LES BLEUS

- By WILL KELLEHER

REMEMBER to breathe everyone. Remember Wales know what they are doing. Remember Alun Wyn Jones has won a Grand Slam three times before — George North, Jonathan Davies, Ken Owens and Justin Tipuric twice.

Remember Yoann Huget’s clanger in the 2019 Six Nations opener, Sebastien Vahaamahin­a’s elbow which brought a red card at the last World Cup.

Remember there is no one at the Stade de France to whip this one up into a French frenzy.

Remember all that when it is tight tonight — it might help get you through if you are Welsh. Captain Jones’ advice applies to every fan.

‘He spoke about not playing the game early,’ said full-back Liam Williams. ‘We all need to keep calm until 8pm.’

This could be another special night for Welsh rugby. A fifth Six Nations Grand Slam — however unlikely it felt last year — is on.

The Welsh supporters cannot be there, but you can be sure the men in red are thinking of them at home tonight.

‘Fans or no fans, we’re playing for our country and most people would kill to be in our position,’ added

Williams. ‘It would be an amazing achievemen­t to win a Grand Slam. It’s what people dream about and for the fans who haven’t been able to be there and have been watching on TV at home with a can of Carling, we want to get the win for them as well.’

That a takeaway pint is all you enjoy at the moment in Wales, and not even that if you live elsewhere, is a crying shame not just for the coffers of St Mary’s Street and Mill Lane bars.

It will be all so different, so flat and so weird. For a start, the Grand Slam game is not in Cardiff for the first time in 27 years — and that brings fresh challenges for this side used to sealing the deal at home.

But at least fans will not face a snaking queue for a tipple, the heartbreak of finding out the Stade de France is a dry stadium, or the mad dash home to a questionab­le hotel room in the early hours.

With the French capital entering a new lockdown this weekend, no one will be painting Paris red if Wales win. So you can settle onto your sofa and bubble up with the rugby and, if you are Welsh, pray.

The French are dangerous. Antoine Dupont, Matthieu Jalibert and Virimi Vakatawa are the closest thing Les Bleus have had to the Holy Trinity for years.

‘We know it’s going to be tough,’ said Williams. ‘They’ve been playing good rugby and have some special players.’

But for all the praise, France are beatable — as proven by England — and do not have the big-match experience that Wales ooze from every pore. French boss Fabien Galthie knows that.

‘Wales have a strong culture, a monstrous amount of collective experience,’ he said. ‘They are competitor­s, they know how to prepare.’

If it came down to genes, to inherent skill, France would walk this. But there’s so much intangible about Wales and these Saturdays when it is all on the line that you would be a fool to doubt them.

The Welsh may have dazzled by scoring 17 tries this tournament — a record to match only the swashbuckl­ing Slammers of 2005 — but this is not a night for that.

‘It’s going to be a close battle,’ said Williams. ‘We’re going to have to take them down to the pits, grind them down, tire them out and, hopefully, it opens up in the second half.

‘Shaun Edwards has turned them into a different team defensivel­y. They’ve been one of, if not the best team in the Six Nations. It’s going to be tough but, hopefully, we’re good enough to win and create history.’

It is in those trenches that Wales are still at their most comfortabl­e. In the bloody fight, relying on wit, nous and cleverness, commitment and desire while kicking and chasing well.

This could be more like the World Cup semi-final of 2019 then, when Wales lost to South Africa in Yokohama — attritiona­l. Faced

with a brutally physical team they fought like mad and got stuck in, tackled until bits fell off them and, which is not a great omen, finally ran out of gas with four minutes left, conceded one breakdown turnover when spent and lost by the penalty Handre Pollard kicked.

The challenge is to outdo that tonight and right those wrongs.

They are far less bashed up now, have more electric game-breakers — like Louis Rees-Zammit out wide, who has scored four tries this competitio­n so far — a more dynamic bench with Tomos Williams, Callum sheedy and Uilisi Halaholo the closers and, if it were possible, even more experience.

Forget the glitz and glamour show then. Tonight, Wales man the barricades.

A close defeat or a draw will be enough for the title, but win and it will light glorious celebratio­ns across three million living rooms, and would be a mighty slam many Welsh will want to remember. FRANCE: Dulin; Thomas, Vakatawa, Fickou, Penaud; Jalibert, Dupont; Baille, Marchand, Haouas, Taofifenua, Willemse, Cretin, Ollivon (c), Alldritt. Replacemen­ts: Chat, Gros, Rebbadj, Jelonch, Serin, Ntamack, Vincent. WALES: L Williams; Rees-Zammit, North, J Davies, Adams; Biggar, G Davies; Wyn Jones, Owens, Francis, Beard, Alun Wyn Jones (capt), Navidi, Tipuric, Faletau. Replacemen­ts: Dee, Smith, Brown, Hill, Botham, T Williams, Sheedy, Halaholo.

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