France pick two players to hunt down Cooper

I don't get the man love for France. - They're on a poor run of games (v England, v SA, v Argentina, v Fiji, v Argentina). - Lievremont has been reluctant to settle on one side in the build-up to this Test. - The tight five, although excellent in the tight phases, doesn't seem capable of playing the sort of rugby that most top nations are currently trying to play. - The fly-half is an inside centre. - The 9, 10 and 15 are primarily kickers. - The 19-12-13 channel, whilst big, are lacking key skills: Rougerie does not have the handling or passing skills of a Test 13, Jazuion and Traille are all too predictable and look inside before going wide. How much ball will the wings see? - The fact Bonnaire and Harinordoquy have been dropped will affect the lineout. - If Cooper's defence is suspect then who will run at him beyond Chabal or Rougerie?

Goldenbull, It's a typical tactic to post two players to defend a playmaker, so not sure what your point is? Noone's criticising Cooper's attack, it's his defence which is lamentable, i suspect the french will ruthlessly target him on attack too.

I thought it was more Why are you called Mortlock or Why do you have to be Mortlock, why couldn't you be someone else? Maybe Amateur wants him to be Maaa Nonu or Shontayne Hape?

erm...'wherefore art thou' means 'Why are you?' or 'For what purpose?' so you've just asked Stirling Mortlock why he is! To which the answer is 'Because."

yeah funny how theres a lot of kiwi fans on here rubbishing Copper when his opposition teams treat him with enough respect to target him out with 2 players and make an article about it, all this for a guy with no game??

Yeah I saw ACC go missing in Hong Kong from a Cooper flat pass .....went missing from AB's clutches right under the posts. Oh but that doesnt count aye Tiwana? Hell the very fact the French coach has selected loosies specifically to nullify Coopers presence seems to be lost on Coopers haters.

can not wait for this! Aus have to take a lot out of the loss against england as the only team so far that has attacked cooper properly to stop him from getting ahead with his attacking game. This game will prove that the wallabies now have tactics that will allow the wallabies to play an attacking game against a team targeting their attacking weapon. I encourage 2 or 3 guys to hunt down Copper and allow cooper to expose 2 or 3 players out of the line to give a beal, ashley-cooper or mitchel a perfect pass to let them slide straight into the gap. Cooper to have a man of the match performance and I predict a lot of unwanted kiwis on here in a few days saying hes overated..... Go the wallabies!!!

AAC has gone missing? WTF? Is this one of those "if you say something enough people will believe it" things? AAC has, by and large, been wonderful as the straight man in that backline for about half a dozen tests. He's improved at setting up his outsides, and his defence, accelration ajd strength in contact (not to mention his fend) are superb. Frankly AAC is the under-appreciated hero in that backline. And QC puts him into most of his half-gaps. Tiwana has issues with QC - good for him.

tiwana - hmm so you want a flyhalf who kicks and tackles, so Wilkinson would be the worlds best flyhalf ever in your book. You would of chosen Flatley over Larkham since he was a better tackler and kicker. Solid guys. Cooper is a better kicker in general play than Larkham. Sure has had some bad kicks BUT larkahm had many days like that. Look at Giteau he kicked out on the full more often, Barnes kicks away good possession. Nowadays you win with the ball in your possession, so you need to be able to use the ball. Cooper does this better than any other in Australia.

I'm just as sick as the media asking dumb questions.

I think that the french midfield will cause the wallabies some serious problems. They are all reasonably large and so more than capable of bashing it up in close, giving the french pack something to aim at. Could be a long, long night. Snow predicted, as well.

Stirling Mortlock, where for art thou?

Parisien - The Wallabies are a mite short on tough guys these days, specially in the front row. But Les Bleus aren't. For those Aussies who may not be too familar with French rugby hooker Servat is a brawny six footer. Props Mas and Domingo are both 110 Ks. and seriously strong. I'm afraid they'll eat the Wallaby front row sans sel, and the Wallaby backs will have to work wonders to overcome the penalties awarded against the pack. Ouedraogo is not a big guy but is probably the fastest flanker in rugby and would have gone after whoever the Wallabies played at 10 anyway. Cooper will have to scurry. If Oeudraogo misses him Dusautoir will get him. He gets everybody. Not impressed by this particular French midfield, but am very impressed by the kicking abilities of Parra and Porical. Could be the Wallabies' hardest game of the tour.

Cliff, its because of QC at 1st and this is why AAC has gone missing as well. France by 7

You said it Parisien. They say forwards win games and backs by how much. So I think the French will win but by how much depends on whether their backs get their tails up.

tiwana, You have to be joking. If you think Giteau is a "great attacker" - you must have not been watching Rugby for the last 18 months. He has done nothing - absolutely nothing in attack for a long time.

It seems that Deans is using Mitchell and Beale as the straight hard runners outside Cooper!

Interesting. A big hard and tough French team but a bit short on flair. Andreu on the bench... a few absentees in the conservative back line which is not the best the French have put out. The French flexed their forward power against Argentina and will try to do so again with their very good pack, Australia will have problems with them. Time for the tough guys to step up! However, Traille is not a genuine 10, (he'll either kick for territory or try to run over Cooper, offloading to Jauzion or Rougerie hitting the line hard and at pace, so defence in that channel will be very important) and Rougerie the winger doesn't convince me at 13. It appears the French will try to out power and smash through in close and in the middle, before creating space further out for Palisson and co, but if the Wallaby forwards work hard at the breakdown and Cooper can defend against the big men coming at him, in attack he can step Traille, who can be a bit slow on the turn, and an unleashed Beale or O'Connor are better than Porical and Huget. I hope it doesn't turn into a kickathon, because while territory will be important, I hope to see both teams having a go and running the ball. I certainly hope that kicks at goal don't decide it. If Australia can score some early trys they may run away with it, and they should finish better, but I expect it will be close.

I think the other way round Tiwana. You need hard straight centres outside Quade Cooper to take advantage of his creative flair. Barnes and Gits are not direct runners, and AAC has not been that noticeable at 13 really.

I am sure Chabal only played to win AAC's respect. Must make him warm and fuzzy to know he has won it now. I am so sick of the media spin coming out of our player's mouths these days. France are always an unknown. You just never know if they are going to turn up hot or not. I think the team they have now, could be very hot. We really need to sure up our forwards, and Cooper's little ball grab tactic might not cut it in defense either. I just want to see him bring a bloke down, not hold him up.