Six Nations/ France v Scotland: The last thing France need in Saint Denis today, with their World Cup build-up imminent and defence of their Six Nations title the immediate priority, is a repeat attack of the Twickenham yips.
Unfortunately they lost their outhalf David Skrela on Thursday with an ankle injury that is unlikely to settle Gallic nerves as they attempt to defend a wafer-thin points advantage of four over Ireland.
Skrela's replacement is the captain of France's under-21 World Cup-winning side, Lionel Beauxis, but he did little to steady the ship as France's lack of composure got the better of them in the second half last Sunday against England. Worse still, the man who would step forward if Beauxis picks up an injury today is the converted centre Damien Traille, who was insipid against the All Blacks in November.
Given the Scots' obduracy last Saturday against Ireland and the way they managed to unsettle the French last year at Murrayfield, their captain, Chris Paterson, was right to claim yesterday they can only benefit from Skrela's withdrawal with the twisted ankle he sustained last weekend at Twickenham.
"Losing Skrela is a big miss; he's transformed their game in the way he defends and the way he controls things," said Paterson. "He's a big, big player for them. I would say he has probably been the best back, and certainly the best number 10, in the championship so far. If he was playing it would probably have been slightly more difficult."
France expect Scotland to play the spoiling game that so nearly brought an unexpected victory against Ireland, in the knowledge that the Stade de France crowd have little patience with their side if they do not like what they see on the pitch.
"France are bound to be under more pressure than we are," said Paterson. "We can't win the championship, they can - and their fans think they should. They know they have to score points to win the championship, so that will put pressure on them - and their fans know that too, which will add even more pressure."
France coach Bernard Laporte sounded a note of caution: "The Scots are not in the place (in the table) they deserve. The results aren't in their favour but they nearly beat Ireland. They are always difficult to play."
France, who have a marginally better points difference than Ireland going into this weekend, will know what they need to do to win the championship when they kick off.
Laporte rejects the notion that this puts his team in the box seat to retain their Six Nations title.
"No, I don't think it will," he said. "We already need to win the match. It is like any match - if you are able to score 30 points, you score 30 points. It can give us some extra motivation knowing the Ireland score but that won't make the Scots any worse."
The Scotland coach, Frank Hadden, makes five changes after the defeat by Ireland, with Rory Lawson starting at scrumhalf and Ross Ford at hooker. Paterson moves to the wing to replace Hugo Southwell, injured against Ireland, while at centre Andrew Henderson returns for Marcus Di Rollo. Nikki Walker makes his first start on the wing for five years while Dave Callam is replaced at number eight by Johnnie Beattie.
France have a totally rejigged 8-9-10 axis, with Imanol Harinordoquy making his first start of the championship at the back of the scrum, while Pierre Mignoni returns to partner Beauxis. The recalled wing Cedric Heymans, in for Christophe Dominici, summed up the French view: "If we are not sufficiently motivated to win, we will never be and we cannot claim to have pretensions to win the World Cup."
The pressure, in other words, could hardly be greater.
- Guardian Service
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)