6N's! Wales v France! Your opinions on why Lievremont has recalled players he previously dropped! Is it panic?

Question

France: Anthony Floch (Clermont); Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Julien Malzieu (Clermont); David Skrela (Stade Français), Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (Toulouse); Fabien Barcella (Auch), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Français), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Lionel Nallet (Castres, capt), Jerome Thion (Biarritz), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont).

Replacements: William Servat Toulouse), Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse), Arnaud Mela (Albi), Elvis Vermeulen (Clermont), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Cedric Heymans (Toulouse).

Answer 1

Gatland has picked a mammoth pack, he believes (as do I), that the french pack is there for the taking. If our tight five perform, then the attacking capabilities of the french returning players will make little difference, as we (Waes) will be doing the attacking.

Gatland thinks this is what will happen, which is why he has opted for hook instead of Jones @ 10. Jones is probably the better defensive 10, hook the better attacking 10. SO!

To answer your question (finally LOL), I don't think he is panicking, I think he just realises that if Wales get their head up, then an inexpereienced French team could let their heads drop, and an absolute hammering could be on the cards for them.

He has recalled players, and some back from injury etc, so that France have their best shot at winning (which they might well do unfortunately), but as importantly so that if they are under the cosh, they will not crumble!

I expect our forwards to win so much ball though that we will end up with about 60% possesssion, and about 60-70% territory.

Oh... and a(nother) grand slam :-D