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Preview: France v Samoa

Never underestimate Samoa

In only their second-ever clash, a much-changed France side host Samoa at the Stade de France on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday.

After the highs of victory over South Africa a week ago, complacency is the danger for le XV de France, who must avoid slipping on a Pacific Island banana peel.

Marc Lièvremont loves his changes. As an antidote to complacency, this week he's made twelve. Yes, twelve.

Wanting to give everyone a decent chance is all fair and well, but at some stage the France boss is going to have to sit down and decide who his best fifteen players are, and let them play together as a unit.

It would be fair to assume that France will beat Samoa on Saturday, but in the grand scheme of things what would Lièvremont have achieved in terms of building Les Bleus into potential World Cup-winners - his ultimate goal?

What message does the constant re-jigging of the team send to the players? Despite all the sing-song about working together as a squad, beating the world champions one week, and getting dropped the next, can't do much for a player's psyche.

What if France win by a landslide? Could a good performance against the Islanders win Morgan Parra a place in the starting XV for the All Blacks? Would that be fair on Julien Dupuy?

Surely the argument for keeping players fresh for the All Blacks must be counter balanced by the argument for continuity?

Either way you look at it, France have been blessed with such a talent-filled generation that they are able to select two teams with very different profiles in as many weeks. Unlike last weekend's side, which was remarkable in it's physicality, Saturday's side is all about attack with the key instigators set to be scrum-half Parra and full-back Maxime Médard.

On paper France have a team capable of racking up the tries, but their eagerness to play offensively could well be their undoing. With a carrot of a place in the XV to face New Zealand dangling tantalisingly ahead of the this team, the danger is that they commit suicide by going too wide, too soon.

As Wales found out last week, you don't want to fall in the trap of underestimating Samoa. The Islanders pushed Wales for all 80 minutes in Cardiff and any nonchalance from the French will come at a hefty cost.

With an extra week's preparation and back on what for a couple players in the Samoan camp is familiar ground, the visitors will provide a stiff challenge. Given only a couple of days to prepare for their first November Test, they were understandably rusty last week - expect a few more passes to stick this time around.

But like France, Samoa have a tendency to be their own worst enemies.

Before the Welsh game I was chatting to a friend who asked what I reckoned would happen. "Samoa will have them running scared until someone sees yellow for a dangerous tackle" I replied jokingly. It took just two minutes for Lolo Lui to be sent to the bin, leaving fans shaking their heads and pondering what could have been - again.

It's a cliche, but it still holds true. Far too often Samoan eagerness bubbles over and they pay the price. Physicality has always been one of Samoa's strong points but considering the way France took South Africa apart, they shouldn't bank on scaring the hosts into submitting.

It must be said that the Islanders have made vast steps in channeling that energy in the right direction in recent years and the blue-clad pack's performance in Cardiff was worthy of praise. Of course, the Samoan back-line has always been a dangerous one and on days when they put all the pieces together in a coherent fashion, they can beat just about anybody.

Anybody? France have already toppled the world's top two teams this year - if Samoa can cause an upset on Saturday, they truly will make rugby history.

Players to watch:

For France: The top try-scorer in the Top 14 so far this season, Bayonne wing Benjamin Fall has as much pace as he has potential. Also keep an eye on Maxime Médard, who was bitterly disappointed to have missed out on a starting berth against South Africa and has promised to show his attacking capability. Beware.

For Samoa: Just like Toulouse prop Census Johnson and Castres lock Iosefa Tekori, number eight Henry Tuilagi will feel quite at home at the Stade de France, where he was in barnstorming form for French champions Perpignan when they beat Stade Français there recently. After two seasons hampered by injury, the 31-year-old is back to his devastating best and ready to flatten anything in his way.

Head-to-head:In a game expected to see plenty of tries, the opposing wings should see plenty of the ball. Will Fall's inexperience cost France against a seasoned campaigner like Leicester's Alesana Tuilagi? There are no such worries about veteran Toulouse speedster Vincent Clerc, who will make life tough for London Wasps charger David Lemi.

Previous result:

1999 : France won 39-22 in Apia

Prediction:Samoa will be no push overs, but we can't see them matching the organisation of a hosts. France to win by twelve points.

The teams:

France:: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Benjamin Fall, 13 David Marty, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Vincent Clerc, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Alexandre Lapandry, 5 Pascal Pape, 4 Sebastien Chabal, 3 Sylvain Marconnet (c), 2 DimitriSzarzewski, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Nicolas Mas, 18 Romain Millo-Chluski, 19 Julien Puricelli, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Damien Traille, 22 Yann David, 23 Fabien Barcella.

Samoa: 15 Lolo Lui, 14 David Lemi, 13 Henry Fa'afili, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Fa'atonu Fili, 9 Junior Polu, 8 Henry Tuilagi, 7 Ofisa Treviranus, 6 Jonathan Fa'amatuainu, 5 Kane Thompson, 4 Filipo Levi, 3 Cencus Johnston, 2 Mahonri Schwalger (c), 1 Justin Va'a.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Williams, 17 Jeremiah Fatialofa, 18 Iosefa Tekori, 19 Misioka Timoteo, 20 Uale Mai, 21 Fuimaolo-Sapolu, 22 Titi Esau.

Date:Saturday , November 21
Venue: Stade de France, St. Denis (Paris)
Kick-off:17:00 (16:00 GMT)
Weather: Max: 16°C, cloudy with strong chances of rain
Referee: Dave Pearson (England)
Assistant referees: Rob Debney (England), Stuart Terheege (England)
Television match officials: Geoff Warren (England)
Assessor: David Herbert (Wales)

By Ross Hastie