David Campese: Just one England player would get into France’s team as Steve Borthwick’s side are primed for ‘substantial’ defeat
David Campese previews England v France and reveals the team he would pick against Les Bleus.
With England hosting France in Round Two of the 2025 Six Nations, Wallaby great David Campese believes that both countries will look to club combinations as injuries and, in England’s case, form, dictate changes.
Combined XV
Here’s a question for you; how many England starting players would get into the French XV?
I was looking at the lineups and from my perspective, the only available Englishman could see realistically getting into Les Bleus would be Ollie Lawrence at centre. And that is mainly due to the fact Gael Fickou, a world-class operator, is injured.
You might argue for the claims of Ellis Genge, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Maro Itoje and Marcus Smith, but realistically are they better players than Cyril Baille, Francois Cros, Greg Alldritt, Thibaud Flament and one of Matthieu Jalibert or Thomas Ramos? My view is you’d have to have a big leap of faith to make a case for the English players over and above the French lads I’ve listed.
That leads me to believe that England have a monumental task to stave off yet another defeat against Tier 1 opposition. As Eddie Jones wrote this week there’s clearly a Tier 1a and 1b emerging and France are very much near the top of that Tier 1 list, arguably the most explosive side in the world, if not the best.
Intuition
France are playing a game of high intuition, but one based upon simple rugby logic. They operate three kickers, all of whom have incredible distance, and in Antoine Dupont, a man that is equally at home working off his left or right foot.
Their superpower is their exit ability; that depth of kick allows them to play rugby away from areas where teams can really hurt them on the scoreboard. We saw Wales struggle to spend time attacking them in the red zone in the Six Nations opener and even when they got close to the French line, the defensive effort from the hosts was quite remarkable. They have some seriously big units and Wales took them on driving around the fringes in a battle where Warren Gatland’s men were conceding 8kg a man. It wasn’t likely to work and it didn’t!
Once France have territory, their ability to attack off nine is peerless and very intuitive. They are masters at forcing through contact, making half-breaks and using collision power to take defenders out.
One of the real features of their attack is the Toulouse inside focus. It’s all about attacking the defensive seam by moving wide and switching back inside to attack a defence that’s moving laterally to defend the fringes. You will see this in two forms- the short-range work, via offloads and chicken passes, getting big men hitting the secondary parts of the defensive line as they drift.
The second part is the open version of this, often either from deep or transition. You’ll see Dupont and either the ten or fifteen work into the wide tramlines and attack with speed along the channels. As they get around primary D and into scramble, they will then switch back to the ten or fifteen who will be running an inside line down the middle of the pitch. It is pure Toulouse engineered – a hallmark of their attack and when France executes it well, it’s almost impossible to stop.
60 Minute England
England have to play for 80 minutes at a consistent physical and mental level. Given their performances in the first half in Dublin and for the first parts of the matches in the Summer against New Zealand and in the Autumn Nations against the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies, there’s no doubt they have the poundage and firepower to open teams up and to score enough points, but why are they falling apart in those last 30 minutes?
This, to me, isn’t one specific thing but a combination of mental fragility, poor decision-making, both on and off the field, and also, perhaps, a lack of conditioning compared to the very top sides. The decision-making is the easiest to fix and the most obvious to determine. But the most concerning is the mental fragility- England get to that 60-minute mark and you can almost see them stopping believing – they palpably change the way they’re playing, become passive and reactive, ceasing to do the things that got them into the position of advantage.
This is demonstrated by their last 30 penalty count; in the games in the Autumn and against Ireland, England averaged eight transgressions in the final stages of each game. Since penalties tend to be conceded more often when defending than attacking, it’s clear that it’s this passivity that’s holding England back.
Saints Template
Looking ahead to the weekend, I understand that England are looking to play Marcus Smith at 15 and Fin Smith at 10. Now, I am a big fan of Marcus and I wouldn’t hold him responsible for the losses so far- but clearly things need to change.
My big caveat here is if you play Alex Mitchell and Fin at nine and ten, then go the whole hog- use the success and interplay of Northampton as your template for success. Play Saints’ outstanding centre Fraser Dingwall at 12 and Ollie Sleightholme on the left wing, with Tommy Freeman on the right and then Fin Smith has his club reference points and relationships to work with.
Why throw him in with a centre and a wing he doesn’t know when there’s ones he does, especially when Henry Slade is in poor form and, if as predicted, Freddie Steward plays on the wing, you expose his questionable defence to the lethal pace of Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey?
France are masters at using club combinations- you see that in the lineout with a Toulouse axis, you see it in their first choice 9/10/15 spine. So England need to take a leaf from their book.
England: Tommy Freeman’s bold Antoine Dupont claim ahead of Le Crunch
Ironically, France will need to look not to Toulouse but to UBB combinations to bolster their issues at 10. It will be either Ramos or Jalibert at flyhalf, with either Ramos or Bielle-Biarrey at 15. For me, it’s Jalibert all the way; he has the highest performance ceiling of any ten in the world and when he’s on the front foot, he’s unplayable. People talk about Ntamack as a great, yet in 2022/23 Jalibert headed virtually every stat by a Test fly half- tries scored, metres made, try assists- he topped the lot.
For England, they need to match power on the gain-line too. That means the three openside approach used versus Ireland will not work against the physicality of the French. You need sheer tonnage against them and for me, that means England back five options that includes Ollie Chessum, Ted Hill (possibly off the bench) and Tom Willis.
If Borthwick’s men decide to employ a kicking game, they will be rinsed with the firepower of the French wings and full-back. There’s a need to keep the ball tight, to hammer collisions and to earn the right to go wide.
I cannot see anything but a substantial win for France – 35-18 or the like. But that might change if England select accurately and intelligently in what could very well be the last chance saloon for Steve Borthwick’s tenure.
Campo’s England team: 15 Marcus Smith, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 10 Fin Smith 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Tom Willis, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Tom Curry, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Maro Itoje 3 Will Stuart 2 Luke Cowan Dickie, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 George Martin, 20 Ted Hill, 21 Ben Curry, 22 Ben Spencer, 23 Tom Roebuck
