{"id":1915,"date":"2014-02-21T08:57:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T08:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2014-02-21T08:57:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T08:57:57","slug":"france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"France clash a must-win game for Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_967\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-967\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/millennium-stadium-virtual_tony-2000.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-967\" alt=\"Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. (Picture: virtual_tony2000)\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/millennium-stadium-virtual_tony-2000.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"787\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-967\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-967\" alt=\"Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. (Picture: virtual_tony2000)\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/millennium-stadium-virtual_tony-2000.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"787\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Cardiff&#8217;s Millennium Stadium. (Picture: virtual_tony2000)<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nWales must win tonight (Friday) against a strong French side to have any hope of winning an unprecedented third straight Six Nations Championship.<br \/>\nWales must bounce back from their\u00a026-3 defeat to Ireland\u00a0in<br \/>\nDublin two weeks ago after kicking off their Six Nations title defence with a\u00a023-15 victory over Italy\u00a0in Cardiff.<br \/>\nFrance have won both their games in the Six Nations so far, at home to\u00a0England\u00a0and Italy, and a win tonight (Friday) would keep their hopes of a grand slam alive.<br \/>\nWales have beaten Les Bleus on the last two occasions the sides have met in the Six Nations, but with marauding French centre Mathieu Bastareaud having recovered from a shoulder injury to come into the starting line-up, Wales\u2019s task will not be an easy one.<br \/>\nThe 18st 10lb Toulon centre\u2019s threat is added to that of his midfield partner, Wesley Fofana, who is considered one of the brightest talents in world rugby.<br \/>\nThe big selection news was Wales head coach Warren Gatland\u2019s decision to omit Lions scrum-half Mike Phillips from his starting line-up.<br \/>\nThe 82 half-back is replaced by Osprey Rhys Webb, while George North moves to outside centre from the wing due to Wales\u2019s injury problems in midfield.<br \/>\nPhillips, 31, a double Grand Slam winner, has been a mainstay of Gatland\u2019s side for several seasons but the New Zealander said the form shown recently by Webb persuaded the coaching team to make the change for the crucial Six Nations game at the Millennium Stadium.<br \/>\nWith messages of support during the week from former Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel and many members of the current coaching staff, Webb will undoubtedly be under pressure to perform, and will have to do just that for Wales to have a chance.<br \/>\nWhile Phillips is a more physical player than his replacement, getting the ball out to the backs quickly could be decisive, with a stark contrast expected by Webb from Phillips\u2019s more leisured approach.<br \/>\nNorthampton Saints\u2019 North takes over the 13 shirt after injuries to Scarlets pair Scott Williams and Jonathan Davies, and possible replacement Ashley Beck was also ruled out during the week.<br \/>\nHis centre partnership with Jamie Roberts will be crucial in stopping France\u2019s main threat of Bastereaud and Fofana.<br \/>\nLiam Williams replaces North on the wing while lock Luke Charteris returns from injury to replace Andrew Coombs.<br \/>\nWith Ospreys fly-half Dan Biggar named on the bench for the first time in this campaign, Rhys Priestland will be under pressure to perform.<br \/>\nFor France, flanker Bernard Le Roux, who suffered concussion in the\u00a030-10 win against Italy,\u00a0is replaced by Racing Metro team-mate Wenceslas Lauret.<br \/>\nDefence coach Shaun Edwards has said Wales must deal effectively with the threat posed by number eight Louis Picamoles who has impressed in the first two matches of the campaign.<br \/>\nWith the back-row remaining unchanged with captain Sam Warburton, Taulupe Faletau and Dan Lydiate chosen, they are the ones faced with the task of stopping the 6ft 4in Toulouse giant.<br \/>\nThere had been calls for Justin Tipuric to come into the side, but only makes the bench.<br \/>\nRefereeing the match will be Alain Rolland, who remains a controversial figure in Wales following his decision to send off captain Warburton in the World Cup semi-final against France in 2011.<br \/>\nRolland, who retires at the end of the season, will be refereeing this fixture for the first time since that day and can expect a hostile reception.<br \/>\nWales v France kicks off at the Millennium Stadium at 8pm tonight (Friday).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Wales must win tonight (Friday) against a strong French side to have any hope of winning an unprecedented third straight Six Nations Championship. Wales must bounce back from their\u00a026-3 defeat to Ireland\u00a0in Dublin two weeks ago after kicking off their Six Nations title defence with a\u00a023-15 victory over Italy\u00a0in Cardiff. France have won both their games in the Six Nations so far, at home to\u00a0England\u00a0and Italy, and a win tonight (Friday) would keep their hopes of a grand slam [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,4],"tags":[1903,154,328,594],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby","category-sport","tag-millenium-stadium","tag-rugby-2","tag-six-nations","tag-wales-v-france"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>France clash a must-win game for Wales - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"France clash a must-win game for Wales - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Wales must win tonight (Friday) against a strong French side to have any hope of winning an unprecedented third straight Six Nations Championship. Wales must bounce back from their\u00a026-3 defeat to Ireland\u00a0in Dublin two weeks ago after kicking off their Six Nations title defence with a\u00a023-15 victory over Italy\u00a0in Cardiff. France have won both their games in the Six Nations so far, at home to\u00a0England\u00a0and Italy, and a win tonight (Friday) would keep their hopes of a grand slam [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-21T08:57:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/\",\"name\":\"France clash a must-win game for Wales - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-21T08:57:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/21\/france-clash-a-must-win-game-for-wales\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"France clash a must-win game for Wales\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\",\"name\":\"cathyduncan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/d4d0895f6e1f7ccb86d04236a870a18b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cathyduncan\"},\"description\":\"Lecturer, Cardiff University News Journalism MA. 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