Six Nations: Wales v France Clash
Wales captain says team are focusing on their own game
Dan Biggar insists Wales will be concentrating on getting their own house in order rather than putting too much emphasis on stopping individual players in this France side.
The Northampton Saints playmaker will captain Wales at the Principality Stadium tonight against a formidable France side who are chasing a Six Nations grand slam. France have some of the world best players in their ranks including current world player of the year Antoine Dupont.
Despite the attention given to the likes of Dupont, Romain Ntamack, and Gael Fickou Biggar is adamant Wales need to focus on themselves first and foremost. “Dupont has a huge influence,” said Biggar. “His partnership with Ntamack has flourished and they’re in good form.
“They’re going to be huge danger men. We try to get our house in order and focus on ourselves and give ourselves the opportunity to put our best foot forward.
“A night kick-off, playing the form team in the world at the minute. It doesn’t get any better than that.
“If you look at their first three games they’re not playing a huge amount of rugby in their half. They are making teams coming from deep. Shaun Edwards has got them very well drilled in terms of post-tackle work and breakdowns which have been a huge plus for them.
“We know that we haven’t got to overplay our hand in our own half but we need to come alive when we get in the French half and take any opportunities we can because we know they are going to be very, very difficult to come across.”
Wayne Pivac has made four changes to his starting XV with Seb Davies and Josh Navidi coming into the back row to replace Ross Moriarty and Taine Basham, respectively. Jonathan Davies wears the number 12 jersey following Nick Tompkins’ concussion, while Gareth Thomas is given a start at loosehead prop with Wyn Jones dropping down to the replacements bench.
Wales have enjoyed some titanic battles with France in recent years, and were denied a grand slam in Paris last season with a last minute try by the home side shattering their dreams. Biggar would like nothing more than for this Wales side to win their first test match against France since the 2019 Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Japan.
“That campaign we won four games up until then and played pretty well against England but there’s absolutely no doubt that the French game was the best we played as a team and we ended up on the losing side which was disappointing,” said Biggar.
“We took the game to France and made it clear that we weren’t just going to absorb what France were going to throw at us. It is very, very difficult with the world-class players that France have got.
“You’re not going to stop them scoring 20 plus points because of the talent and the power they have in their team so we knew that we were going to have to score 20 plus points to be in with a shout. That was our mindset then and it’s still the same now.”