Wales have been wonderful... but I fancy France
I HAVE yet to find a Wales fan or pundit who predicted a Grand Slam, so there is no pressure whatsoever on Wayne Pivac and his squad at the Stade de France tonight. A Slam would be a huge bonus for Wales. Failing that, the championship would still be a huge achievement. Having said that, I am still tipping France to win. There might well be an anxious wait until next Friday night’s delayed game against the Scots before this year’s championship is done and dusted. Everything hinges on how France bounce back from what was a very disappointing defeat at Twickenham. As well as England played, France could easily have won that game. I’m sure they expected to win but it didn’t happen — the first big setback for this group. Now they must dust themselves off and go again. Nothing needs to change in their approach, just be more precise when the chances offer themselves and keep doing the basics well. Wales have confounded so many people this season — including me. Alun Wyn Jones has flexed his muscles again after a quiet autumn, the influential Ken Owens has returned from injury, Taulupe Faletau is firing again and Jonathan Davies has overcome more injury issues to start looking like the world-class player he is. Pivac was adventurous enough in the autumn to blood Callum Sheedy and Louis Rees-Zammit, who has been a revelation. He is one of the quickest wings I’ve ever seen with bags of skill and rugby nous. His career is only going in one direction. All this is promising, Wales have the firepower to tackle the French but I also think France will see that as a challenge. It will spark them up. So I’m taking France to win a Six Nations classic and if that does happen, of course, the subplot will be whether they can claim a try bonus point and/or whether Wales could pick up losing bonus points ahead of next Friday’s finale. Everything to play for.