Six Nations: FRANCE v WALES
Venue: Stade de France, Paris Date: Sat, 19 March Kick-off: 1945 GMT
Coverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC One HD & online from 1930-2200; Listen on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru & BBC Radio 5 Live; Text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles

Wales coach Warren Gatland has questioned the fitness of France's forwards ahead of their Six Nations clash in Paris on Saturday.

Gatland believes a high ball-in-play-time could be to his side's benefit at Stade de France.

"If we can keep the ball in play for over 40 minutes... we just think the French may struggle a little bit up front," said the New Zealander.

Wales go into the game on the back of three successive wins.

They lost on the opening night, 26-19 to England, but bounced back with victories against Scotland, 24-6, Italy, 24-16 and Ireland, 19-13.

That leaves Wales second in the table to Grand Slam-chasing England, who face Ireland in Dublin ahead of Gatland's side's night-time clash in Paris.

France lmade history by losing 22-21 to Italy in Rome in the last round, prompting a bout of soul-searching and harsh words in the French camp.

There's not a lot of difference now between us and the top teams in terms of territory and possession Wales coach Warren Gatland

Gatland is hopeful his side can add to French problems in World Cup year.

He said: "We want to ask some questions about the French forwards in terms of their fitness levels.

"When teams kick a lot of ball at you, sometimes you're forced into having to reply with a kick to play a little bit of ping-pong, a little bit of a territory game, which we were forced into a bit last week [against Ireland].

"But hopefully this week it'll give us an opportunity to keep the ball on the park.

"Fitness-wise we feel like we're in pretty good shape. We've worked hard in this campaign.

"We want to ask some questions about the French forwards in terms of their fitness levels and if we can keep the ball in play for over 40 minutes - the last couple of games have been over 40 minutes of ball in play, which is a lot - we just think the French may struggle a little bit up front.

France are dejected after their 22-21 defeat by Italy

"We've worked really hard in this campaign in terms of the amount of work these guys have done in the gym and their fitness and we think physically we're in great shape.

"It's an aspect that we've been improving on all the time and it's been a massive focus for us in the last two or three seasons, sometimes to the detriment of our game because we have put a huge focus on that.

"And I've kept saying to compete against the best teams in the world we've got to be able to compete against them physically.

"You can go out and get one-off wins and I think if you look at the last year or so, yes we've lost games, but at least we know we're in the game physically and there's not a lot of difference now between us and the top teams in terms of territory and possession."

France: M Medard (Toulouse); V Clerc (Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), D Traille (Biarritz), A Palisson (Brive); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), M Parra (Clermont); T Domingo (Clermont), W Servat (Toulouse), N Mas (Perpignan), J Pierre (Clermont), L Nallet (Racing-Metro), T Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), J Bonnaire (Clermont), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz).
Replacements: G Guirado (Perpignan), L Ducalcon (Castres), P Pape (Stade Francais), A Lapandry (Clermont), J Tomas, (Montpellier), F Estebanez (Brive), Y Huget (Bayonne).

Wales: Lee Byrne; Leigh Halfpenny, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, George North; James Hook, Mike Phillips; Paul James, Matthew Rees (capt), Adam Jones, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton, Ryan Jones.
Replacements: Richard Hibbard, John Yapp, Jonathan Thomas, Rob McCusker, Dwayne Peel, Stephen Jones, Morgan Stoddart.

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)

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