As anticipation builds, both teams will be eager to set the tone for their campaigns in rugby’s most storied annual competition.
France will be hoping to claim their first Six Nations title since 2022, while Warren Gatland’s Welsh side will be hoping to put a tough 2024 behind them and end their losing streak against the odds.
Head-to-head
France have won each of their last six Test matches against Wales after winning just one in nine against them previously (L8). Only once before have Les Bleus recorded a longer winning streak against Wales in men’s Test rugby (W12 from 1983-1993), however Wales have won five of their 12 matches away to Les Bleus in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations - no other side has won as often in France in the Championship.
Historically, results could barely be closer. Of the 104 matches between France and Wales, France have won 50 to Wales’ 51, with three draws.
France cruised past Wales 45-24 in their 2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations meeting in Cardiff, showcasing a mix of flair and physicality that epitomises their modern game.
France may go in as heavy favourites, but Wales head coach Warren Gatland has told of a ‘siege mentality’ within the squad and warned people to ‘write us at off at your peril’.
Form guide
France head into the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations off the back of a successful 2024 Autumn Nations Series, which saw them claim impressive wins over France and Argentina, while narrowly beating New Zealand 30-29, in an epic rugby spectacle in Paris.
Wales have lost their last 12 Test matches, their longest ever losing run in Test rugby; they have lost 12 of their last 13 matches in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations, including their last six in a row – they haven’t lost seven on the bounce in the Championship since 2002-2003 (L7).
Former Welsh international Adam Jones, who has joined Gatland’s coaching set up believes Gatland can turn a struggling Welsh side around, “He [Gatland] brings players and teams together in a very short space of time and gets results out of them. He is exceptional at that. I am backing him to pull it round.”
“The whole country and the whole rugby world thinks we are going to go there and get pumped,” Jones said. “We are pretty confident we can go out there and do a job.
“It is a key thing out there if we can silence the crowd. It sounds a bit like Gladiator when Oliver Reed says it to Russell Crowe. If we can silence that, it is half the battle won.”
Team news
Gatland has called up Ospreys prop Ben Warren into his Guinness Six Nations squad.The 24-year-old starred at international age-grade level, where he played 15 matches for Wales U20s, scoring one try. Warren has featured 29 times for the Ospreys across the United Rugby Championship (URC) and the European Challenge Cup.
French fans all over the world will be waiting with bated breath over record-breaking winger Damian Penaud’s availability for the opening clash against Wales on Friday.
“He had a little pain with a small muscle problem so we’ll see. He will undergo tests, we will know more in the coming days,” explained assistant attack coach Patrick Arlettaz in a press conference after training. Penaud has been in sensational form for Bordeaux, scoring a Champions Cup record six tries against the Sharks a fortnight ago and has 15 tries in 10 appearances for the season overall.
Antoine Dupont (France) is set to play his first Guinness Men’s Six Nations game since facing Wales on the final day of the 2023 Championship, having missed last year’s edition due to his wildly successful sevens sojourn. since the start of 2020, Dupont has beaten more defenders (101), made more line breaks (16), and assisted more tries (29) than any other men’s Tier 1 scrum-half.
Stat attack
The last time France and Wales met in the opening round of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations was in 2019, with Wales winning 24-19 before going on to complete the Grand Slam. Since that match, France have gone on to win 21 of their 23 Test matches at the Stade de France (L2), including 10 of 11 in the Six Nations (L1).
France averaged the most kicking metres (910) per game of any men’s Tier 1 side to in 2024 and successfully executed four 50/22 kicks last year, the joint-most of any such team, alongside Wales and England.
Gatland will be keeping a close eye on French wonderboy Louis Bielle-Biarrey: he scored a try in each of his three Autumn Nations Series matches for Les Bleus (4 in total) while no player made more line breaks than him in the series (8, level with Tom Wright); the Union Bordeaux-Bègles winger has scored 16 tries for club and country overall in 2024/25, the most of any Six Nations player.
Wales’ Tommy Reffell won 11 turnovers in the 2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations, five more than any other player; in fact, it was the joint-most by any player in a single edition of the Championship, alongside John Barclay, who won 11 turnovers for Scotland in 2011.
