STAR RUGBY PREVIEW Sun: Wales v France

Wales started the Six Nations with a heavy defeat against England and they look set for more of the same when France visit the Principality Stadium, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

This is set to be another long campaign for the Welsh, who off their 2025 Six Nations campaign with a 43-0 defeat in France and ended it with a second consecutive Wooden Spoon, before a torrid year with no let up in off field issues which saw them win just one game, a last gasp success against Japan in the Autumn Nations Series.

They could barely lay a glove on England, who left points on the field despite winning 48-7, and they conceded 16 penalties, received four yellow cards and played for 20 minutes with 13 men. Such mistakes will be pretty ruthlessly exploited by a French side that were ominously powerful early on against Ireland in the tournament opener, leading 22-0 at half time.

The French won the kicking battle comprehensively with more variety and a better recovery rate for the ball and then managed 19 offloads, gaining 150 meters alone due to their ablity to move the ball with such freedom and managing to beat Irish defenders a staggering 35 times to boot.

Matthieu Jalibert continued his fine form and worked perfectly with Antoine Dupont, only a forward pass prevented Louis Bielle-Biarrey from a hat-trick, Théo Attissogbe was a menace on the other wing, and the French pack, led by a statement performance from Mickaël Guillard, blew the Irish away early with Charles Ollivon very comfortable moved to the second row, whilst Anthony Jelonch filled in perfectly at 6.

Fabien Galthie has changed both his centres, with Émilien Gailleton and Fabien Brau-Boirie replacing the injured Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoortère, but given how Wales were held by England it’s doubtful the home side can test that new combination.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales v France 🇫🇷 
Guinness 2026 Six Nations, Round 2
Principality Stadium, Cardiff
15.10 BBC One HD / BBC iPlayer / BBC Radio 5 Live / S4C

 STARSPORTS.BET MATCH MARKETS 

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The Welsh did manage to create opportunities at Twickenham, but Josh Adams’ try came when England were down to 14 and the Scarlets centre duo of Joe Hawkins and Eddie James at 12 and 13 will have a huge task trying to create for Wales and reach Louis Rees-Zammit and Josh Adams in the backline.

Steve Tandy has made four personnel and two positional changes to his lineup with Olly Cracknell getting his Six Nations debut at 8, with Aaron Wainwright moving to blindside flanker and Alex Mann switching to the openside. Whilst that should help with carrying and balance, it’s impossible to see it transforming Wales to the point where they can compete with France.

The starsports.bet handicap is set at 31 points, which is the biggest Wales have received in Six Nations history but also entirely fair on all known form. Wales lost 68-14 to England in the last Six Nations game of 2025 here, and then lost 52-28 to Argentina, 52-26 to New Zealand and 78-0 to the Springboks, all before their 48-7 trashing last week.

Starsports.bet also offer even money on France scoring 49 points or more, something which looks worth chancing considering there’ll be a closed roof at the principality.

The gulf between the pair is shown in the tryscorer markets, where Louis Bielle-Biarrey is just 1/4 to cross the tryline at any point, Theo Attissogbe is 1/2, and Antoine Dupont is 7/10. The 4/1 about Louis Bielle-Biarrey scoring a hat-trick might be of interest to some but backing a high scoring French victory looks the way to go.

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Teams

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit; 14 Ellis Mee, 13 Eddie James, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Josh Adams; 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Tomos Williams; 1 Rhys Carre, 2 Dewi Lake (c), 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Adam Beard, 6 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Alex Mann, 8 Olly Cracknell

Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Ben Carter, 20 Taine Plumtree, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Mason Grady.

🇫🇷 France: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Théo Attissogbe, 13 Émilien Gailleton, 12 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Antoine Dupont (c), 8 Anthony Jelonch, 7 Oscar Jegou, 6 François Cros, 5 Mickaël Guillard, 4 Charles Ollivon, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 2 Julien Marchand, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros

Replacements: 16 Maxime Lamothe, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Regis Montagne, 19 Thibaud Flament, 20 Emmanuel Meafou, 21 Lenni Nouchi, 22 Baptiste Serin, 23 Noah Nene

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PROFIT/LOSS (FEB 2026): +18.12 points

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