Preview: France v Canada

Canada v France

A massive crowd - and a record TV audience for women's rugby - is expected for the final game of the day and Canada will certainly have a 16th man/woman to contend with if the form of the French fans has been anything to go by so far.

In a way, Canada’s excellent progress at this World Cup has flown under the radar, with the Irish providing the key storyline, but it should be applauded.

They can count themselves unlucky to have been forced to wait until the end of the French and Australian game to know their semi-final fate, because they certainly did enough to top their pool in their draw with England.

It was a game in which they were ferocious defensively and completely unafraid in attack.

Throwing the ball wide at almost every opportunity, with Andrea Burk and Mandy Marchak in the middle causing massive problems in midfield, they showed the kind of adventure in attack that makes them such an exciting team to watch.

The key battle here though will be up front. Canada’s pack has been heroic in this tournament albeit occasionally more ill-disciplined than it needs to be - and led by the brilliant Kelly Russell, they are up against a French pack which prides themselves on their forward play and who indeed are happy to keep it tight for 80 minutes if needs be.

In Russell Canada surely have one of the forwards of the tournament and the Canadian scrum has been supremely powerful so far. But it is up against stern stuff on Wednesday.

No team I have watched change as France do when they play at home. They can go from being thoroughly ordinary one week to sublime the next and that is a massive factor although really it shouldn’t be for a team with the talent they have.

Key for France too is the fact that have been improving game by game. Safi N’Diaye - after a quiet start - has started to run over people for fun for France from number 8 and a few metres out there are French forwards aplenty who are almost impossible to stop with the try-line in their sights. Canada cannot afford to give them positions like that.

The Canadians need at least parity up front though to take this one and that is because the French backs have been rather unsung in this World Cup and they shouldn't be.

Sandrine Agricole has been superb at flyhalf and outside her the likes of Marion Lievre and Camille Grassineau have been a constant threat, not to mind the silky running of Caroline Ladagnous from full back.

However, in an interesting development, a last-minute injury has forced Grassineau to withdraw from the team. Rather than simply replacing her with Elodie Guiglion, French selectors have chosen a more radical path.

Ladagnous moves from 15 to (nominally at least) take Grassineau's place on the wing, while Christelle Le Duff comes off the bench to start at full-back. In addition full-back Jessy Tremouliere also now comes into the squad to start on a bench that still features five forwards, with the seventh place taken by centre Elodie Poublan. It is the third change at fullback for France at this tournament.

It also will be interesting to see if Ladagnous does indeed stay at 11, as Shannon Izar would be a more logical choice as she has mainly played on the wing at club level.

These changes, forced though they are, present a very different feel to the French backline.

There are some significant benefits. For example, France's perennial problem - which has revived since the shock retirement of Aurelie Bailon last year - is unreliable kicking. Agricole can be brilliant on some days, less so on others - but in this game France start with two kickers on the field and a third on the bench in the shape of Tremouliere.

In addition, while Ladagnous is a superb full back in every other way, she has never had a strong boot and her inability to clear the ball has been France's undoing in the past. With Le Duff starting at 15 France are also strengthened in this area. Overall it is probably now a more physically powerful backline that originally selected

However Plan A for France is clearly to use their forwards, allied to a solid defence.

Uniquely they have yet to concede a try in the tournament and it seems unlikely that there will be any change of tactics now. Against Australia they appeared to experiment with a more expansive game in the first half, but it did not really come off, and in the second they returned to type. There will be no experimenting tomorrow - their team selection betrays this, as did Mignot herself when shespoke about team tacticson Saturday evening.

Whatever the result of the game will be, its unlikely that it will be pretty.

France believe that if they can stop the opposition scoring then they will win and given the combination of their powerful pack and an uncompromising back unit (Mayans has developed into a peerless defensive centre), this is understandable. With a world-record home crowd behind them, and the not unimportant prospect of a little rain in the evening, I make France slight favourites to take this one.

FRANCE: Le Duff – Lièvre, Izar, Mayans, Ladagnous – (o) Agricole, (m) Troncy – N’Diaye, André, Diallo – Koita, De Nadaï – Portaries, Mignot (cap), EzannoReplacements: Salles, Arricastre, Chobet, Rabier, Grand, Tremouliere, PoublanCANADA: Alarie – Harvey, Marchak, Burk, Waters – (o) Belchos, (m) Bernier – K. Russell (cap), Paquin, Murphy – Samson, Blackwood – Leith, Donaldson, Pinault-ReidReplacements: L. Russell, DeMerchant, Kirby, Beukeboom, Mack, Zussman, Dovanne