Preview: France vs Italy - prediction team news, lineups

France welcome Italy to the Stade Pierre-Mauroy on Sunday afternoon for round three of this year's Six Nations Championships.

Fabien Galthie's men scored an astonishing eight tries to beat Wales 54-12 at the Principality Stadium last weekend, while Gonzalo Quesada's side fell to a 20-13 loss against Ireland in Dublin.

Match preview

After consecutive Ireland triumphs, France won back the Six Nations title in 2025 and it looks very likely that they will retain it this year too.

Les Bleus are searching for back-to-back championships for the first time since 2007 and having beat Ireland and Wales so far, Galthie's side not only look set to break that duck, but also replicate their 25-point grand slam success from 2022.

Having lost three of their previous 22 Six Nations matches, with only one of those being at the Stade de France, the table toppers are also a formidable opponent to visit and showcased that perfectly when sweeping aside Ireland with relative ease on the opening weekend.

France are also yet to lose when hosting Italy in the Six Nations and are currently on a run of 16 matches without a loss against Sunday's opponents, most recently thumping them 73-24 in Rome last year.

In this year's competition France boast both the most prolific attack and stubborn defence, which they will be keen to strengthen when they face a Gli Azzurri side that they have scored a total of 380 points against, while only conceding 134 in their previous nine encounters.

© Iconsport / LiveMedia

Following an impressive win against Scotland on the opening weekend, Italy were knocked back slightly by Ireland last Saturday, edged out 20-13 by Andy Farrell's men in what was a tight encounter at the Aviva Stadium.

Despite holding a 10-5 lead at the break, Quesada's men failed to kick on in the second period, conceding two tries within 20 minutes of the restart as they left Dublin with just the one losing bonus point.

However, after holding the wooden spoon title for eight successive tournaments, Gli Azzurri have improved dramatically in recent years and are showing that they are more than capable of competing with any side in the competition.

Although they are on a run of three consecutive away defeats and have never triumphed away to France in the competition, Italy were mightily close to changing that on their previous visit, with Paolo Garbisi's last-gasp penalty agonisingly hitting the post meaning the spoils were shared in a 13-13 draw at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in 2024.

France Six Nations form:

France form (all competitions): 

Italy Six Nations form:

Italy form (all competitions):

Team News

© Iconsport / LaPresse

Galthie has named an entirely fresh second row for Sunday's match as Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou replace Charles Ollivon and Mickael Guillard, both of whom drop to the bench.

However, the hosts have deployed an identical backline to the one that started at the Principality Stadium last weekend, with Antoine Dupont, Matthieu Jalibert, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Theo Attissogbe and Thomas Ramos all starring in their third match of the tournament.

In terms of new faces as replacements, Peato Mauvaka, Georges-Henri Colombe and Pierre-Louis Barassi come in for Maxime Lamothe, Regis Montagne and Noah Nene.

As for the visitors, they start with the same pack that featured in Dublin last Saturday, with Michele Lamaro captaining the side from blind-side flanker.

The backline is also much the same, however they do welcome Ange Capuozzo back at fullback as he replaces Lorenzo Pani who drops out of the squad.

Quesada has also opted to include Pablo Dimcheff and Giosue Zilocchi on the Italian bench, as they replace Tommaso Di Bartolomeo and Muhamed Hasa.

France starting lineup:

15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Theo Attissogbe, 13 Emilien Gailleton, 12 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 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 Oscar Jegou, 8 Anthony Jelonch

Replacements:

16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Georges-Henri Colombe, 19 Charles Ollivon, 20 Mickael Guillard, 21 Lenni Nouchi, 22 Baptiste Serin, 23 Pierre-Louis Barassi

Italy starting lineup:

15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 3 Simone Ferrari, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 6 Michele Lamaro, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 8 Lorenzo Cannone

Replacements:

16 Pablo Dimcheff, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Giosue Zilocchi, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Riccardo Favretto, 21 David Odiase, 22 Alessandro Garbisi, 23 Paolo Odogwu

We say: France 30-10 Italy

There is no doubt that Italy have come on leaps and bounds in recent years, even since their pulsating draw with this weekend's hosts in 2024, but it is hard to look past this French team with the form that they are in.

Although we do not think it will be a thrashing, we are backing Les Bleus to secure a comfortable win in Paris and edge ever closer to that elusive grand slam.