Week Two of the Six Nations
Big clash in Strasbourg
After the first Under-21 round in the Six Nations, the clash between Ireland and France in Strasbourg in the far east of France looks the critical one.
France, England and Ireland can still win the Grand Slam,. which was Wales's feat in 2005.
First round results:
England vs Wales, 26-18
France vs Scotland, 37-0
Ireland vs Italy, 34-9
Italy vs England at Stadio La Marmora, Biella on Thursday
England started with a good win over Wales while Italy started with a big defeat at the hands of the Irish. Even if the match is being played in Italy where it is cold, you would take England to win.
Italy Under-21: 15 Riccardo Robuschi (Overmach Parma), 14 Michele Sepe (HDI UR Capitolina), 13 Marco Neethling (Overmach Parma), 12 Enrico Patrizio (Carrera Petrarca Padova), 11 Diego Varani (Futura Park Rugby Roma), 10 Enrico Ceccato I (Marchiol San Marco), 9 Fabio Semenzato (Benetton Treviso), 8 Paul Derbyshire (Stade Français), 7 Nicola Cattina (Ghial Calvisano), 6 Max Castrogiovanni (Ghial Calvisano), 5 Alberto Saccardo (Carrera Petrarca Padova, Cap), 4 Franco Rendace, 3 Andrea Michelini (Modena Rugby), 2 Lorenzo Giovanchelli (Stade Francais), 1 Marco Giazzon (Marchiol San Marco)
Replacements: 16 Valerio Vicere’ (Antares Benevento), 17 Andrea Ceccato (Ruggers Tarvisium), 18 Marco Pelizzari (Benetton Treviso), 19 Andrea Barbieri (Consiag I Cavalieri Prato), 20 Michele Sutto (Benetton Treviso), 21 Gabriele Brussolo (Benetton Treviso), 22 Emmanuel Billot (Carrera Petrarca Padova)
England Under-21: 15 Shane Geraghty (London Irish), 14 Topsy Ojo (London Irish), 13 Matt Cornwell (Leicester Tigers) (captain), 12 Anthony Allen (Gloucester), 11 Mike Brown (Harlequins), 10 Ryan Lamb (Gloucester), 9 Ben Foden (Sale Sharks), 8 Jordan Crane (Leeds Tykes), 7 Michael Hills (Sale Sharks), 6 James Haskell (London Wasps), 5 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), 4 Richard Blaze (Worcester Warriors), 3 David Wilson (Newcastle Falcons), 2 Chris Brooker (Bath), 1 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs (Sale Sharks), 17 Mark Lambert (Harlequins), 18 Tom Ryder (Saracens), 19 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), 20 Nick Runciman (Worcester Warriors), 21 James Hoyle (Newcastle Falcons), 22 Thom Evans (London Wasps)
Referee: David Changleng (Scotland)
Wales Under-21 vs Scotland at Rodney Parade, Newport on Friday
Martin Roberts has been promoted to the Wales Under-21 starting line-up. He plays scrumhalf in the place of Liam Davies in the only change made to the side who went down 26-18 to England last Friday.
Although the defeat means there is no chance of another Grand Slam this season, Wales Under-21 coach Chris Davey says: "There is still a championship title to play for.
"England have to go to France and the French have to come to Wales. So the Championship is very much alive and we have plenty to play for over the coming weeks.
"Martin came off the bench against England and we will start with him this time with Liam among the replacements in what is essentially a vote of confidence in the side."
Scotland Under-21 coach Iain Paxton has opted for the same starting line-up and replacements to face Wales.
Paxton said: “We could probably narrow down two or three areas early in our game last week that basically killed us. To all intents and purposes the chance of a win was beyond us by half-time having had two players sent to the sin bin within two minutes of each other.
“This week the same starting XV get an opportunity to perform. We need to be more accurate and increase our competitiveness on the field. We know it’ll be a very difficult task to go down there and win but we felt it was right to give these players the chance. I know the players will all have been inspired by Scotland’s win yesterday – it would be impossible not to be."
Teams:
Scotland Under-21: 15 Iain Kennedy (Glasgow Warriors, Glasgow Hawks and West of Scotland Institute of Sport), 14 Ben Addison (Stirling County and Central Institute of Sport), 13 Ben Cairns (Edinburgh Gunners, Currie and Scottish Institute of Sport), 12 Garry Law (Border Reivers), 11 Lee Kibble (Border Reivers, Biggar and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), 10 Dave Blair (Sale Sharks) (captain), 9 Greig Laidlaw (Jed-Forest), 8 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors and Scottish Institute of Sport), 7 Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh Gunners and Scottish Institute of Sport), 6 Scott Newlands (Heriot’s and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), 5 Ian Nimmo (Leicester Tigers), 4 James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors, Ayr and West of Scotland Institute of Sport), 3 David Young (Leicester Tigers), 2 Sean Crombie (Aberdeen GSFP and Grampian Institute of Sport), 1 Ryan Grant (The Army)
Replacements: 16 Innes Brown (Stirling County and Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport), 17 Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh Gunners, Boroughmuir and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), 18 Michael Robertson (Hawick), 19 James Taggart (Currie), 20 Stephen Biggart (Glasgow Hawks), 21 James King (Border Reivers, Melrose and East of Scotland Institute of Sport), 22 Dave Whiteford (Melrose)
Wales Under-21: 15 Jamie Roberts (Cardiff/Blues Academy), 14 Darren Daniel (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), 13 Andrew Bishop (Ospreys), 12 Dafydd Hewitt (Cardiff/Blues Academy), 11 Chris Czekaj (Cardiff Blues), 10 James Hook (Neath/Ospreys Academy), 9 Martin Roberts (Neath/Ospreys Academy), 8 Tom Smith (Captain), (Neath), 7 Rhys Shellard (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), 6 Craig Everett (Worcester Academy), 5 Dominic Day (Carmarthen Quins/Scarlets Academy), 4 Alun Wyn Jones (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), 3 Phil Osborne (Newport/Dragons Academy), 2 Duane Goodfeild (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), 1 Rhys Gill (Cardiff/Blues Academy)
Replacements: 16 Ed Shervington (Neath), 17Ian Jones (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), 18 Will Jones (Newport/Dragons Academy), 19 Ben Lewis (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), 20 Tom Riley (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), 21 Aled Thomas (Newport/Dragons Academy), 22 Liam Davies (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy)
Referee: Dean Keane (Ireland)
Touch judges: Marshall Kilgore, Tom Horkan (both Ireland)
France Under-21 vs Ireland Under-21 atat the Centre Sportif de Hautepierre, Strasbourg on Friday
Ireland have had a good start to their 2006 campaign. They beat Leinster A 40-12 in January anmd then beat Italy 34-9 last weekend. Coach Mark McDermott has named an unchanged side to take on France.
Ireland were expecting a tough physical encounter against Italy and that is exactly what they got, with the home side eventually winning out.
McDermot knows that the French will be tough but believes that his side can improve on their Italian performance. He said: "Last week we took the majority of our scoring chances. So we were happy in that respect. This week presents a whole new challenge and the key areas where we wanted to improve, such as our ball presentation at the breakdown and areas of our defence, will be vital for Friday's game."
The French Under-21 side has undergone many changes. In the backs Thibault Lacroix comes in at outside centre and Maxime Mermoz moves to inside centre on the place of Arnaud Mignardi. But the main changes are in the forwards. Steve Malonga, Arnaud Héguy and Laurent Cabarry move to the bench, Damien Chouly, Denys Drozdz and Damien Weber drop out. Fulgence Ouedraogo, Julien Ledevedec And Laurent Sempere come off the bench and into the side. Florian Cazalot comes straight into the starting team while Carpentier, Thomas Aniès, the Sevens player, and Julien Jeuvray come onto the bench.
Drozdz and Chouly who play for Brive, and Mignardi, whpo plays for Auch, have been released to play for their clubs in important matches whuicgh were postponed because of the weather..
All of these are changes made to a winning team, but manager Max Godemet was not at all satisfied with the performance against what he calls a moderate Scottish side. Lots of things were tried that failed to come off.
Teams:
Ireland Under-21: 15 Fionn Carr (Blackrock College), 14 Peter Durcan (Galwegians), 13 Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins), 12 Conan Doyle (Garryowen), 11 Matthew Williams (Bristol Shoguns / Hartpury College), 10 Jonathan Sexton (St Mary's College), 9 Paul Marshall (Ballynahinch), 8 Billy Holland (UCC), 7 Ejike Uzoigwe (Hartpury College), 6 Ross Noonan (UCC), 5 Devin Toner (Lansdowne), 4 Daniel Touhy (Gloucester / Hartpury College), 3 Paul Doran-Jones (Dublin University), 2 Stuart Philpott (Belfast Harlequins) (captain), 1 Darragh Hurley (UCC)
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin (Shannon), 17 Callum Black (Worcester Warriors / Hartpury College), 18 David McGowan (Buccaneers), 19 Sean O'Brien (UCD), 20 Duncan Williams (UCC), 21 Tom Gleeson (Cork Constitution), 22 Fergus McFadden (UCD)
France Under-21: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Yann Fior, 13 Thibault Lacroix, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Grégory Puyo, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Fabien Cibray (captain), 8 Fabien Alexandre, 7 Bontinck, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Loic Jacquet, 4 Julien Ledevedec, 3 Yohan Montès, 2 Laurent Sempere, 1 Florian Cazalot
Replacements: 16 Arnaud Héguy, 17 Laurent Cabarry, 18 Carpentier, 19 Steve Malonga, 20 Damien Neveu, 21 Thomas Aniès, 22 Julien Jeuvray
Referee: Neil Ballard (Wales)
Touch judges: Gwyn Morris, Alan Jenkins (both Wales)
Assessor: Jean-Pierre Juanchich