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France vs Italy highlights: Rugby World Cup scores, blog

19th September, 2015
Kickoff: 5am AEST
Venue: Twickenham (London)
Betting: France $1.08, Italy $8.00
Officials: Craig Joubert, Assistants: John Lacey and Stuart Berry, Video: Shaun Veldsman
Last Five Meetings: France 3 - 2 (All six nations)

France:

1. Eddy Ben Arous, 2. Guilhem Guirado, 3. Rabbah Slimani, 4. Pascal Pape, 5. Yoann Maestri, 6. Thierry Dusautoir (c), 7. Damien Chouly, 8. Louis Picamoles, 9. Sebastien Tillous - Borde, 10. Frederic Michalak, 11. Noa Nakaitaci, 12. Alexandre Dumoulin, 13. Mathieu Bastareaud, 14. Yoann Huget, 15. Scott Spedding

Interchange: 16. Benjamin Kayser, 17. Vincent Debaty, 18. Nicolas Mas, 19. Bernard Le Roux, 20. Alexandre Flanquart, 21. Morgan Parra, 22. Remi Tales, 23. Gael Fickou

Italy:

1. Matias Aguero, 2. Leonardo Ghiraldini (c), 3. Martin Castrogiovanni, 4. Quintin Geldenhuys, 5. Josh Furno, 6. Alessandro Zanni, 7. Francesco Minto, 8. Samuela Vunisa, 9. Edoardo Gori, 10. Tommaso Allan, 11. Giovanbattista Venditti, 12. Andrea Masi, 13. Michele Campagnaro, 14. Leonardo Sarto, 15. Luke McLean

Interchange: 16. Andrea Manici, 17. Michele Rizzo, 18. Lorenzo Cittadini, 19. Valerio Bernabo
20. Simone Favaro, 21. Guglielmo Palazzani, 22. Carlo Canna, 23. Enrico Bacchin
France will look to bounce back form their disappointing World Cup campaign against Ireland (AFP PHOTO / LOIC VENANCE)
Roar Guru
19th September, 2015
96
1971 Reads

In a match to get the blood racing, two absolute heavyweights of the game who have produced some incredible moments in World Cup history go head to head when France take on Italy at Twickenham. Join The Roar for live coverage from 4:45am (AEST).

This game doesn’t bring its own huge story lines, not least of which is the likelihood that the loser will find themselves on an early flight home from the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Making this game even more important is the fact that both teams have been struggling in recent times.

In the four Six Nations tournaments played since the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the French have failed to finish any higher than fourth (2012: fourth, 2013: sixth, 2014: fourth, 2015: fourth), and their record in the World Cup lead-in games was mixed.

They were well beaten by England at Twickenham (19-14) before turning the tables back on home soil (25-20) a week later. These games were followed by an unconvincing, yet much needed win over Scotland (19-16).

But, of course, this is France. And their unpredictability is one of world rugby’s most enduring stereotypes. You never know which France will show up on the day. If France fire, they can beat anyone in the world, no doubts about it. However if they don’t it could get very ugly.

The cliché, however, is actually reasonably accurate. At the 2011 edition of the Rugby World Cup, the French bumbled their way through the group stages, losing to both New Zealand and Tonga, before recovering to go within a whisker of winning the final against the host nation New Zealand.

And it’s not the first time they’ve done it, pulling outrageous performances out of the hat to beat the highly fancied Wallabies in 1987 and All Blacks in 1999 and 2007. It just shows that Italy will have to be on their game if they want the win.

If it is even possible, Italy have been going worse than France. Following a 48-7 World Cup warm up defeat to Scotland, Italy coach Jacques Brunel was forced to admit: “I don’t know what happened today.”

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On top of that, their talismanic captain Sergio Parisse is out injured together with first choice fly-half, Kelly Haimona, and emerging centre Luca Morisi. In a side lacking creativity and scoring power, these are significant losses.

Historically, France have been all over Italy taking 33 of 36 matches. However, Italy have won two of the last five and will take confidence from that. Whoever takes this one has a foot in the door of the quarter finals.

So grab a croissant, a cappuccino and join The Roar for live coverage from 4:45am (AEST) and don’t forget to leave your comments in the section below.

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