News

Foley wary of French forwards

Wednesday 25th June 2008

Scrumming machine: Benoit Lecouls

Australian set-piece specialist Michael Foley believes the Wallabies will have their work cut out for them when they face France at the ANZ Stadium on Saturday.

Foley warned the Wallaby forwards on Wednesday that the under strength Bleus would use their scrum as a base for attack and challenge the Australian front rankers in open play.

"The front row they've picked are probably most renowned for their scrummaging, both locks are big physical guys and certainly with the captain (Lionel Nallet) in the tight-five suggests the approach that they'll have to the game," Foley told Sportal.

"And (it's) a very dynamic back row they've put together there.

"(Imanol) Harinordoquy's a guy that a lot of people will have seen but (number eight Louis) Picamoles and (Fulgence) Ouedraogo are very good athletes that played during the Six Nations that made a big difference to their running game.

"They're French - so scrummaging for them is a way of life."

"(Hooker S�bastien) Bruno and (Lionel) Faure the loosehead, have had combination at (English club) Sale and they'll have (S�bastien) Chabal packing behind them who's also with them at the same club."

"And at tighthead they've picked a guy (Benoit Lecouls) who I think is a specialist scrummager."

Like Head Coach Robbie Deans, Foley believes the Wallabies will have to step up their performance for the second Test this year, especially when it comes to controlling the breakdown area.

"We felt our mauling was down in the first Test (against Ireland) and again there's probably some clarity around that in (the lead up to) this second Test," he explained.

"But there isn't one area that we don't want to improve on.

"We were good in patches but there were other times where we felt those inconsistencies left the opposition with opportunities.

"And to be a side going forward that's going to be No.1 in the world we need to be able to close those opportunities for the opposition down."