France vs Italy

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This Friday, France and Italy will play to conclude Pool A of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. With 13 points, the host country presently holds the lead in the group, while the guests are in third with 10 points. Just avoiding defeat now will be enough for France to go to the quarterfinals. They have performed admirably thus far in this competition, which began with a 27-13 victory over the All Blacks in week one. Although Les Bleus' second victory over Uruguay was less stunning, they nevertheless managed to complete the task despite fielding a second-string team.

France, on the other hand, managed to defeat Namibia 96-0 after regaining access to their entire team last week. However, that victory did not come without a cost; captain Antoine Dupont had to leave the game due to a fractured cheekbone. Even though they are greatly favored to win this game, they cannot assume Italy will lose, thus they have enough of cover for the scrum-half.

Italy, meanwhile, had a strong pre-competition preparation and had high expectations going into the match. They trounced Namibia to get off to a solid start in the competition, but they had a fright against Uruguay in their second game. Long stretches of the game saw Los Teros in the lead, but the Azzurri proved to be too strong in the second half. Italy faced a much stronger opponent in New Zealand last week after their two easy matches were finished, and they were totally outplayed.

The All Blacks defeated the Italians 96-17, scoring an astounding 14 tries in the process. Italy still has a chance to qualify if they overcome France here, despite their loss. The Azzuri have only prevailed three times in 47 games between these Six Nations foes, and none of those victories came in the past ten years.