WALES TO USE THEIR EDS

JAKE BALL reckons having the inside track on Shaun Edwards will be the key to beating France on Saturday.

Edwards was ex-coach Warren Gatland’s right-hand man for 12 trophy-laden years with Wales.

With Gatland gone, Edwards is now the defence coach for France, who top the Six Nations table.

But Ball believes Wales can expose any chinks in their armour as they know every detail of Edwards’ blueprint.

“Shaun’s done a great job,” said the lock. “They’re two from two and the defence has been good.

“Obviously we know Shaun pretty well, we know what he likes to bring in defence, so potentially that could give us a bit of an advantage. You can see what he’s done for them in the first couple of games, but from our point of view, we have a new defensive team in as well.”

France’s rookies are on course for their first Grand Slam since 2010 following wins over England and Italy.

But Ball believes they will be in for a shock when they meet the wall of noise inside Cardiff ’s Principality Stadium.

“It’s a great place to play but it can be pretty hostile as well,” he said. “They’ve had two home games, two wins, but this is their first away game, so it’s an opportunity for us to put them under pressure.”

IRELAND are aiming to make Sunday a Beautiful Day after calling in Bono to amp up their preparations for the clash with England.

Ahead of the resumption of the Six Nations, U2’s lead singer (inset) was called in by new Ireland head coach Andy Farrell to deliver an impassioned talk on Irish identity at the team’s base near Dublin.

“Faz wants to give us a sense of our identity,” said Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray.

“He is doing that through our training but also through things like speaking to Bono and last night he talked about what it means to be Irish and what’s special about it. “Bono is just a huge personality and it was unbelievable.”