Fantasy Six Nations 2020 Preview – France

Fantasy Rugby Geekon

With Saturday 1st February 2020 fast approaching, it’s time to delve a bit deeper into this year’s potential fantasy Six Nations stars. So over the next two weeks FRG is providing a quick preview of all the teams from a fantasy perspective. Today we look at France…

France

In a nutshell

France. Ever the enigma, the infuriatingly brilliant yet inconsistent French have a rich Six Nations history but have struggled for any kind of consistent performance in recent years. Despite this, the France side has undergone a large transition in recent years, and the 2020 Six Nations will represent somewhat of a “changing of the guard” for France with big names such as Bastareud, Picamoles, Fofana and Guirado stepping away from the international arena and a new breed of  bright young talents in the likes of Demba Bamba, Gregory Alldritt, Damien Penaud, Thomas Ramos, Romain Ntamack and Antoine Dupont all stepping up to help progress this enormously talented French side forward. 
 
Fabian Galthie has named a very young and inexperienced side for his first Six Nations, with no less than 19 uncapped players. This means there are no places for certain fantasy-relevant players such as Yoann Huget, Alvereti Raka, Artur Iturria and Maxime Machenaud. Despite this, France are blessed with numerous attacking talents, especially in Teddy Thomas, who has been in sensational form for Racing this season.
 
Write Les Bleus off at your peril, on their day they are more than a match for anyone, and if they click and hit some consistency then they could well be topping the table come the end of the tournament.

Current World Ranking

7th (As of the 2nd December 2019)

Performance in the 2019 Six Nations

4th

Odds on winning Six Nations 2020

7/1 (4th)

Six Nations History (Since start of Six Nations in 2000)

Winners x 5 (including 3 Grand Slams)

Most likely to make a fantasy impact

Antoine Dupont (Scrum Half – Toulouse)

Key players to consider

Demba Bamba (Prop – Lyon), Camile Chat (Hooker – Racing 92), Gregory Alldritt (Loose Forward – La Rochelle), Antoine Dupont (Scrum Half – Toulouse), Romain Ntamack (Fly Half – Toulouse), Gael Fickou (Centre – Stade Francais), Thomas Ramos (Outside Back – Toulouse), Damian Penaud (Centre/Outside Back – Clermont), Teddy Thomas (Outside Back – Racing 92)

Top Performers in 2019 Six Nations

  • Most Points: Yoann Huget (20 points)
  • Most Tries: Yoann Huget (4 tries)
  • Most Assists: Maxime Medard (2 assists)
  • Successful Kicks: Baptiste Serin and Romain Ntamack (3 successful kicks each)
  • Most Metres Carried: Damian Penaud (279m carried)
  • Most Defenders Beaten: Yoann Huget (18 defenders beaten)
  • Most Clean Breaks: Yoann Huget and Antoine Dupont (8 clean breaks each)
  • Most Offloads: Mathieu Bastareaud (9 offloads)
  • Most Successful tackles: Felix Lambey (70 tackles made)
  • Most Turnovers won: Mathieu Bastareaud (7 turnovers won)
  • Most successful lineout takes (and stolen lineouts): Arthur Iturria (12 lineouts won and 4 stolen lineouts)
  • Players who played every minute of 2019 Campaign: None

Full squad

Forwards:

Dorian Aldegheri (Toulouse), Cyril Baille (Toulouse), Demba Bamba (Lyon), Camille Chat (Racing 92), Anthony Etrillard (Toulon), Jean-Baptiste Gros (Toulon), Mohamed Haouas (Montpellier), Julien Marchand (Toulouse), Jefferson Poirot (Bordeaux-Begles), Cyril Cazeaux (Bordeaux-Begles), Killian Geraci (Lyon), Bernard Le Roux (Racing 92), Boris Palu (Racing 92), Romain Taofifenua (Toulon), Paul Willemse (Montpellier), Gregory Alldritt (La Rochelle), Charles Ollivon (Toulon), Dylan Cretin (Lyon), Francois Cros (Toulouse), Alexandre Fischer (Clermont), Sekou Macalou (Stade Francais), Selevasio Tolofua (Toulouse), Cameron Woki (Bordeaux-Begles)

Backs:

Antoine Dupont (Toulouse), Baptiste Serin (Toulon), Maxime Lucu (Bordeaux-Begles), Romain Ntamack (Toulouse), Louis Carbonel (Toulouse), Mathieu Jalibert (Bordeaux-Begles), Gael Fickou (Stade Francais), Virimi Vakatawa (Racing 92), Arthur Vincent (Montpellier), Julien Heriteau (Toulon), Gervais Cordin (Toulon), Lester Etien (Stade Francais), Gabriel Ngandebe (Montpellier), Damian Penaud (Clermont), Vincent Rattez (La Rochelle), Teddy Thomas (Racing 92), Anthony Bouthier (Montpellier), Kylian Hamdaoui (Stade Francais), Thomas Ramos (Toulouse)

Likely Kickers

Successful kicks from France kickers since September 1st 2018…

Kits

 

France’s kit can be purchased here at Lovell Rugby (*Full disclosure, this is an affiliate link, so FRG will earn a small commission if kits are purchased through this link)

Full list of Matches

  • Round 1 – Sunday February 2nd, 3pm GMT – France v England – Stade De France
  • Round 2 – Sunday February 9th, 3pm GMT – France v Italy – Stade De France
  • Round 3 – Saturday February 22nd, 4:45pm GMT – Wales v France – Principality Stadium
  • Round 4 – Sunday March 8th, 3pm GMT – Scotland v France – Murrayfield
  • Round 5 – Saturday March 14th, 8pm GMT – France v Ireland – Stade De France

 

If you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to Fantasy Six Nations glory and win you some stash while you are at it, then join our public fantasy league on The Rugby Magazine fantasy game, where a signed paperback copy of the Fantasy Rugby Handbook and a Fantasy Rugby Geek Trucker Hat, will be on offer for the winner of the league. Join it here!

Other Fantasy Rugby Games for the 2020 Six Nations

A summary of the top games that you can play fantasy rugby for the 2020 Six Nations (some of these are currently unconfirmed so may not have 6 Nations games live)…

  • The Rugby Magazine – Stats rich salary cap style game – Check out our 2020 review here
  • PlayOn – Daily Fantasy for Rugby – Sign up today here to receive a free $22 entry with a first-time deposit – Check out our 2020 review here
  • ESPN – A classic and straightforward Six Nations fantasy game – Check out our 2020 review here
  • SuperBru – An old favourite with salary cap fantasy rugby among other games and sports – Check out our 2020 review here
  • The Irish Times – Salary cap game with a €3000 top prize – Check out our 2020 review here

Pre-tournament articles

In case you missed any of our other pre-Six Nations articles, make sure you check out the following to help guide your pre-tournament preparations…

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Get free tickets to The Rugby Show

The Rugby Show is a two-day gathering at the Ricoh Arena, home of Wasps, in July 2020. The Rugby Show already has a fantastic range of phenomenal speakers from across the professional game. The likes of Lawrence Dallaglio, Maggie Alphonsi, current England World Cup duo, Joe Marler and George Kruis and World Cup winner Sarah Hunter will be talking about their own experiences, about coping with injury, maintaining fitness, nutrition, providing demonstrations on how to improve your skills as a player and more. The line-up also includes recent MMA convert James Haskell, Premiership regulars Jimmy Gopperth and Tommy Taylor to name a few. Registration has now gone live and as an ambassador of the Rugby Show, Fantasy Rugby Geek is offering you FREE ENTRY to the event (which usually costs £15 for an adult ticket). Click this link https://the-rugby-show-2020.reg.buzz/fantasy-rugby-geek and enter the following code TRS20GRASSROOTS to book your FREE tickets now!

Looking for more Fantasy Rugby insight and Resources?

New for the 2019/20 season, we are proud to present the The Fantasy Rugby Handbook. An exhaustive collection of wisdom and experience gained from over a decade of fantasy rugby playing. Primarily aimed at less experienced players but with enough nuggets of wisdom and insight for even the most grizzled fantasy rugby veteran. There is something here for all players. The eBook is available to download now for just £3.99 on Gumroad as a PDF and on Amazon in Kindle format (Free on Kindle Unlimited) – check it out!

If you want some more sources to help you finalise your decisions, go to our resources page where you’ll find all the 2020 Six Nations fantasy games, all the stats sources, injury news, team news, fantasy relevant rugby betting odds and tons of other useful information.

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