Wales eager to break through French wall

Wales will attempt to succeed where England failed when they tackle World Cup hosts France at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday.

But assistant coach Nigel Davies accepts that breaking down a brick-wall French defence poses an immense challenge.

England huffed and puffed at Twickenham and in Marseille during the past two weekends.

On each occasion though, they trooped off tryless as Jonny Wilkinson, Olly Barkley and Andy Gomarsall shared all of England’s 24 points from the boot over back-to-back World Cup warm-up Tests.

England could not even piece together a meaningful line break at Stade Velodrome three days ago, such was the fierce French determination to suffocate them at source.

Wales though, will surely need to find a way through the system organised by France’s Yorkshireman in residence – defence coach Dave Ellis – as they target another morale-boosting triumph following the 27-20 victory over Argentina last Saturday.

Davies said: “Our games with France over the last few years have been very entertaining, but one of the difficulties playing against them at the moment is to break down their defence.

“They have got a superb defensive structure. They don’t overly commit to the breakdown, but they make sure that defensively they’ve got numbers in spaces.

“England failed to score a try against them over two games, and that is one of the challenges that presents itself to us on Sunday.”

If Wales are to prise France open, the fly-half/inside centre combination will have a key bearing on events.

James Hook and Gareth Thomas proved a solid partnership against Argentina, linking brilliantly for the opening try scored by Thomas, and Davies believes the Wales skipper has more variation to his game than he gets credit for.

Davies added: “I think people do Gareth a disservice by saying that he is one type of player.

“He has got some very good subtle skills. His passing ability is second to none within our squad, and there were a couple of occasions in the game where he put a little subtle pass in that made a difference and took us to another area.

“People should not write him off as not having the ability to play that type of game.

“Sometimes we want to play off our 12 more than our 10, and France might be a case in point here because in the 10 channel they rush up, and maybe we will have more space and opportunity to play from the 12 channel.

“I am quite comfortable Gareth Thomas can give us that option.”

Continuity is key to Wales as their World Cup campaign approaches, and coach Gareth Jenkins is not expected to make wholesale changes, although wing Shane Williams and scrum-half Mike Phillips are probable starters against France.

But any outside chance of fly-half Stephen Jones featuring will not materialise as he continues his recovery from a groin-related injury that has sidelined him since late July.

Wales say Jones’ recovery programme remains on course to see him fully fit around the time of next month’s World Cup opener against Canada in Nantes.

In the meantime, Wales will look to develop the encouraging aspects of their performance against Argentina.

Davies said: “I felt our first-half performance was very good, particularly as we conceded an early try.

“We are trying to build confidence within the squad, and that score could have dented it badly, but the boys showed great character.

“I didn’t think Argentina were in the game in the first half, but in the second half, we lost the plot.

“It is a concern, but we are quite clear where things are going wrong and we are quite clear where we are losing our composure.”