By A demanding England Fan!
March 9 2012

England take on France on home turf, will the French turn up we ask?

RBS SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

 FRANCE v ENGLAND

Sunday, 11 March - Stade de France - Kick Off: 1500 GMT

Picture - Aarchitecture-studio

England travel to France with an unchanged side, the side that gave the Welsh a good run for their money.  On the bench two players make welcome returns with Tom Palmer replacing the injured Courtney Lawes and Charlie Hodgson taking over from Toby Flood.  So what can we expect?  Well I don't expect a win, it would be nice but I think the French in front of their home crowd will be wanting England's scalp pretty badly this time around.

So again, all I ask is a good performance by all, no pressure just go out and enjoy the cauldron that is the Stade de France and above all learn from the experience and no doubt I fear the pain of defeat.   I would love to be very wrong on this but we have to face facts, on paper against a much more experienced French side we are hoping lady luck will play her part for a win on this day. 

Let us hope this young man Owen Farrell has a bit part to play this weekend - Picture Empics

However, stranger things have happened with the French and they were definitely a bit 'iffy' against the Irish last weekend and only just scraped the draw.  Odd  when you think they had the chancel of the Grand Slam but that is the French for you.   One thing is for sure they will want this win against England as remember they 'don't like us' do they!

France have selected a XV with 623 test caps, making a disparity of 426 caps with the England team – the only time this has been surpassed between major nations in test history was for the round two game England - Italy game in Rome. Previously the most had been a 376 cap difference between the respective New Zealand and Australia teams at Auckland on 6 August 2011. (Stats provided by Official RBS Six Nations & Accenture)

Well bring it on............ go England do your very best, go make us proud of your performance.

France : Clement Poitrenaud; Vincent Clerc, Aurelien Rougerie, Wesley Fofana, Julien Malzieu; Lionel Beauxis, Julien Dupuy; Jean-Baptiste-Poux, Dimiti Szarzewski, Nicolas Mas; Pascal Pape, Yoann Maestri; Thierry Dusautoir, Julien Bonnaire, Imanol Harinordoquy.

Replacements: William Servat, Vincent Debaty, Lionel Nallet, Louis Picamoles, Morgan Parra, Francois Trinh-Duc, Maxime Mermoz

England: Ben Foden; Chris Ashton, Manu Tuilagi, Brad Barritt, David Strettle; Owen Farrell, Lee Dickson; Alex Corbisiero, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole; Mouritz Botha, Geoff Parling; Tom Croft, Chris Robshaw, Ben Morgan.

Replacements: Rob Webber, Matt Stevens, Tom Palmer, Phil Dowson, Ben Youngs, Charlie Hodgson, Mike Brown.