Clerc confident of victory

France wing Vincent Clerc believes France are capable of beating Wales by 20 points and winning the Six Nations in Cardiff on Saturday.

France wing Vincent Clerc believes France are capable of beating Wales by 20 points and winning the Six Nations in Cardiff on Saturday.

The in-from Toulouse back also thinks that the atmosphere at the Millennium Stadium can work to France's advantage. After all, this is where Les Bleus ended New Zealand's tilt at the World Cup last year.

“I think it's possible to beat them. By twenty points to, certainly, ” Clerc told lesite.

“It's a big challenge that we're not thinking about too much. If we're ahead, we'll try push for the twenty points.

“[But] we shouldn't start by trying to run from everywhere to get a lead from the start. That won't be the correct philosophy.

“I'm undefeated [at the Millennium Stadium]. I've got really good memories, but we're not thinking about the Wold Cup quarter-final.

“I like playing in [hostile environments]. It helps the group stick together and to play above ourselves. Sometimes it's quite positive. It's an added motivation.”

But Clerc is far from overconfident and has nothing but praise for the home side.

“[The Welsh] are a balanced team. They are strong up front and are able to score tries with alarming ease. They've found their rhythm with a Ospreys skeleton,” he said.

The French coaching staff have changed their half-backs in selecting two experienced players in the form of Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde and David Skrela, but Clerc believes this is of little significance.

“There's a lot at stake on Saturday and there'll be a lot of people and pressure,” he said.

“But François [Trinh-Duc], Morgan [Parra] or anyone else would have been able to cope. The coaches wanted pick a half-back combination with a bit more experience and players who have experienced this sort of match before.

“I know them well and I'm happy to play with them. There might be a bit more cohesion because we have played together a lot.

“If François comes on, we won't worry. Other youngsters like Fabien [Barcella] and Anthony [Floch] are already in the starting line-up.”

The French side has seen a lot of new faces in this year's Six Nations but Clerc does not believe this is a trend that will continue in the very long term.

“The French team is open to about forty players. Maybe in the future it will be narrowed down a little, ” he said.

“A lot of experiments with new players were tried in this tournament to test players. We're only in the first step of building this team.

“The World Cup is still four years away. [The coaches] are going to try construct a group that has a certain cohesion.

“It's still a bite early. It might only be done in a year or two. After a while the group will become smaller, for sure.”

Does that mean that the current French team is lacking cohesion?

“The team is first looking to establish a state of mind, a way of playing and for everyone to move in the same direction,” he said.

“All the players called-up need to have that perspective.

“Cohesion come after the accumulation of matches. That doesn't necessarily mean the repetition of the same line-up.

“The most important is a common will. That will come with time. We have already seen some very interesting things since the start of the Six Nations with different combinations.

“We've worked well in training with the same mind set. Up front it's more complicated. I'm not an expert but I know it's not easy in the scrums and line-outs. It requires a lot of movement and combinations.

“At the back, we've already played together so it's easy to find our marks.”