Ralf Blackburn: Would love to be in Cardiff tonight, no better atmosphere before a rugby match in the world   

Hefin Jones: Wales to win tonight by 7-10 but it will be tough.

Michael Gillick: Tonight I am French

Image source, Getty Images

While we are talking all things bangy and whizzy in the BBC Sport technological top hat, maybe you would like to add the new Top Story alerts in the BBC Sport app.

Simply head to the menu in the app - and don't forget you can also add alerts for the Six Nations, cricket scores, your football team and more.

T'riffic.

Want to know what to watch and where? Here you go:

•  Friday: Wales v France, BBC One & Radio 5 live  (20:05 GMT)
• Saturday: Italy v Scotland, ITV & 5 live sports extra (14:25 GMT) and England v Ireland, ITV & Radio 5 live (16:50 GMT)

Book out the sofa, silence the phone and enjoy.

Who wouldn't recognise the game face of ex-England hooker Brian Moore?

Who fancies having a scrummage in the middle of Cardiff?

Amorous.

"Fear." "Weakness." "Ruthless." "Stronger".  

A man saying words. A black background. Stirring strings. 

Watch the dramatic opener for Friday's Six Nations match between Wales and France, featuring actor Michael Kelly from US drama House of Cards. 

Richard Williams
BBC Sport Wales at the Principality Stadium

Image source, getty images

If experience matters then Wales should be overwhelming favourites against France. 

The eight players on the Wales bench have 292 caps between them - that's more than the entire French starting XV who have 242.

As for Wales' starting XV - they boast an impressive 661 caps.

Morgan Louch: Atmosphere is absolutely class

MTSherlock: Huge game tonight but this is our house and we shall not lose.

BBC Sport

Whoever wins tonight will take pole position in the Six Nations table.

But there are going to some dents and dints left in both teams before we find out the new top dog.

Image source, .

This one is live, alive-o on BBC One, BBC One HD, online, tablets, mobiles and BBC Sport app from 19:30 GMT. 

No excuse really. You can click at the top of this page to get it streaming like the beer pumps on St Marys Street.

You can also listen on BBC Radio 5 Live. Andrew Cotter is joined by former Wales scrum-half Rob Jones and ex-England international Paul Grayson. 

Here they are in Cardiff, complete with a photo-bombing Mark Chapman. The rascal. 

Image source, .

Image source, Getty Images

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has stoked the French flame in the run-up to tonight's contest.

"Everyone talks about French flair and where has the French flair gone? In the past, they had absolute world-class quality players in attack.

"It's not because they haven't got the players - it's just teams defensively are so organised. There is just no space on the field.  

"Where's the flair gone? Well, we are all trying to be innovative and hopefully trying to create space, but the more you try to be creative in attack, the better teams become defensively as well."  

OPEN!

It was meant to be shut for the game, with rain predicated in Cardiff (quelle surprise), but the WRU confirmed earlier this evening it will remain an outdoor match for "technical" reasons.

Cagoules at the ready.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

So Alun Wyn Jones is worried about rugby going soft on the field. What about off it?

England coach Eddie Jones this week said he had no qualms about targeting Ireland fly-half Johnny Sexton, adding that he was "sure Sexton's mother and father would be worried" about his series of head injuries.

To me hinting that a guy might be part of a generation of rugby players to lose their mental faculties before their parents is a little bit distasteful.

And either way, mothers being brought into a conversation is often the watershed where chewing fat stops and breaking teeth begins.

Or am I just showing the northern hemisphere niceties that prevent our teams developing the hard edge they need? All's fair is love, war and top-level sport and that?

Your thoughts on Jones' comments and how far pre-match barbs should go are welcome on #bbcsixnations , externalon Twitter, the BBC Sport Facebook page, external and 81111 on text.

Rob Jones
Former Wales scrum-half

"It's a huge game. If you look at what Wales have done over the last two games, and looking ahead to what I think will be the championship decider at Twickenham, it's a big game. 

"Wales have to win. They've been slow starters but they get there. I expect Wales to win tonight and the game against England to be huge. Wales are comfortable favourites."

Image source, Getty Images

What is French for "roughhouse"? "Maison mauvais" perhaps?

No need to look in the dictionary. 

Guy Noves' team gave the definitive "physical", "uncompromising", "abrasive" performance a fortnight ago, bounty-hunting Johnny Sexton right out of the game and pummeling Ireland to defeat with heavy cavalry off the bench. 

Does Jones want referee Wayne Barnes to take a stamp down on any such skulduggery? Does he heck.

"Obviously, there was a bit of, I don't know, afters - whatever you want to call it - but I think we have got to be very careful we don't sanitise it too much because then the game might turn to touch," he said this week. , external

Touche.

Image source, Getty Images

Eddie Butler there reminiscing of days when hair was long, shorts were short and space on an international rugby field was as abundant as discoballs and lava lamps.

But back here in the twenty-teens, Alun Wyn Jones has not got the message.

He is expecting a most modern sort of Test tonight at the Principality Stadium - one where flesh is bruised, bone marrow is wobbled and hulking great men turn each other into crash test dummies.

Image source, Getty Images

*Clears throat, marinates vocal cords in Welsh honey and a gallon of oaky Bordeaux, adopts a wistful, almost seductive stare into the middle distance and begins*

"It is stronger than willingness. It is a yearning - to rediscover a spirit of adventure.  

"Both Wales and France dream on, yearning for a more romantic, soulful game. 

"And when two teams think and mourn alike, maybe, just maybe, they will ease their fingers towards the handbrake and dare release that which holds them back."  

Image source, Getty Images