It's now over to the French second-string to keep pace with the starters and hand Uruguay a big defeat.
Thursday 15 September
France TBA* | Draw 66/1 | Uruguay 33/1
Le Bleu laid down a marker against New Zealand beating the Kiwis by 14 points. While the New Zealanders did start the game like a house on fire with Mark Telea scoring in the first few minutes of the fixture, the French always seemed to have the All Blacks’ number as they built up a healthy lead through fullback Mathieu Jalibert’s boot and then turned the screw with Damien Penaud and Melvyn Jaminet grabbing second-half tries to secure a comfortable win for the hosts.
With the big boys having got the job done last week, France will now look to give their fringe players a run against minnows Uruguay. The French have a really deep squad, though, so there will still be plenty of quality taking to the Stade Pierre-Fabre this Thursday evening.
The Uruguayans have certainly been handed a tough opener here as the men they play against this Thursday will be looking to make a statement and force their way into consideration for starting berths in France’s bigger ticket fixtures. And while the South Americans have improved dramatically over recent years, with all their players now professional as opposed to in the early-noughties when they were mostly semi-professionals, they’re still in for a tough old night here.
The South Americans had a decent enough build-up to the tournament beating fellow tier 3 nations Namibia (26-18) and Chile (26-25). The French, albeit a somewhat weakened iteration, are a massive step up in class!
The handicap for this one is likely to settle in the early 60’s. I’d be happy to back the French to clear any handicap under the 70 point mark.
France on the minus
