Preview: France vs. England - prediction team news, lineups

France welcome England to the Stade de France on Saturday evening for the final round of this year's Six Nations Championship.

Fabien Galthie's men were put to the sword by Scotland at Murrayfield in their previous game, while Steve Borthwick's side suffered a devastating defeat against Italy in Rome.

Match preview

After winning each of their first three Six Nations matches, France’s grand slam hopes were shattered at Murrayfield last weekend as they were convincingly beaten by Scotland.

France scored four tries in the final 15 minutes of the match to cut the deficit to only ten points but ended up losing 50-40 in Edinburgh, meaning the championship fight comes down to the final weekend.

Galthie’s men currently sit on 16 points, the same tally as Scotland who travel to Dublin this weekend, but know that a bonus point win against England would all but win them back-to-back championships.

Les Bleus will certainly be confident that they can bounce back from last week’s wobble too, having won each of their previous four Le Crunch matches at home and beating England 33-31 the last time the sides met at the Stade de France.

However, over the previous 35 years France have claimed a bonus point win against England on only one occasion and they have never claimed all five points at home to Saturday's visitors.

© Iconsport / PA Images

Coming into the tournament as one of the favourites, this year's Six Nations has certainly been one to forget for Borthwick’s England.

After convincingly beating Wales 48-7 at Twickenham on opening weekend, the 2020 winners have lost each of their previous three and have seen their pre tournament optimism crushed to a pulp.

As a result, England would need to win in Paris, a feat they have not achieved since 2016, and hope Wales can claim their first victory of the tournament to beat Italy earlier in the day if they are to finish any higher than fifth in the table.

While they hold a substantial score difference advantage over Steve Tandy's side, claiming a singular point at the Stade de France would be enough for England to avoid receiving the wooden spoon.

After losing three consecutive matches against France, England won the most recent encounter between the sides, with a late Elliot Daly try converted by Fin Smith to give Borthwick’s men a slender 26-25 win at Twickenham last year.

France Six Nations form:

England Six Nations form:

Team News

© Iconsport / Icon Sport

Galthie has made three changes to the scrum that faced off against Scotland last Saturday, with Mickael Guillard, Oscar Jegou and Anthony Jelonch making way for Thibuad Flament, Emmanuel Meafou and Temo Matiu.

As part of their rotations amongst the forward pack, France will start with Charles Ollivon on the back row, having played on the second row in Edinburgh.

The hosts make only one change to their backline, with Pierre-Louis Barassi starting at outside centre in place of Nicolas Depoortere.

Borthwick makes one change to the forwards that faced Italy, with Tom Curry making way for Ollie Chessum as Guy Pepper switches from blindside to openside flanker.

England also deploy an identical backline to the one that featured in Rome, with Ben Spencer, Fin Smith and Elliot Daly all retaining their spots.

France starting lineup:

15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Theo Attissogbe, 13 Pierre-Louis Barassi, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Antoine Dupont, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 4 Thibaud Flament, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 6 Francois Cros, 7 Temo Matiu, 8 Charles Ollivon

Replacements:

16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Demba Bamba, 19 Hugo Auradou, 20 Mickael Guillard, 21 Joshua Brennan, 22 Baptiste Serin, 23 Emilien Gailleton

England starting lineup:

15 Elliot Daly, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Tommy Freeman, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Ben Spencer, 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George, 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Alex Coles, 6 Ollie Chessum, 7 Guy Pepper, 8 Ben Earl

Replacements:

16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Trevor Davison, 19 Chandler Cunningham-South, 20 Sam Underhill, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Jack van Poortvliet, 23 Marcus Smith

We say: France 36-12 England

England will certainly want to end their dismal tournament on a high, but it is difficult to see them taking anything away from the Stade de France on Saturday evening.

Regardless of the results earlier in the day, we think France will put on a show this weekend and claim that all important bonus point win to bank back-to-back Six Nations triumphs for the first time since 2007.