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France half tight Antoine Dupont scored two goals in his team’s 38-21 victory over Welsh the Saturday before the final round of the Six Nations next weekend.
Dupont crossed before halftime thanks to Virimi Vakatawa’s superb play both times as Les Bleus prepared for Saturday’s possible decisive match with Ireland, which will also be played behind closed doors at the Stade de France due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Wayne Pivac’s visitors lost a fourth consecutive international match for the first time since the summer of 2016. In seven days they will host Scotland in the Six Nations, which had been suspended since March due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The match had been at risk of not being contested at all due to player release issues between the French federation and the Top 14 league, with Fabien Galthie’s team meeting just six days before the match.
“We won the match with a training session in the week and scored five attempts against the Welsh. It’s nothing,” Galthie told France Televisions.
“Before saying that there are things we can improve on, I am very happy to have managed to start like this after being away for so long,” he added.
Pivac said its players lacked pre-game practice and some played only three regional games.
“We were very rusty. We came out of the confinement without a lot of rugby played,” Pivac said.
“We need to make sure that we come out with fewer errors and leave a couple of tries lying around, so we have to be a little more clinical,” he added.
Galthie made three changes since losing to Scotland in March when Teddy Thomas, Vincent Rattez and Cyril Baille replaced the injured Damian Penaud, center Arthur Vincent and retired Jefferson Poirot.
Pivac captain Alun Wyn Jones equaled former New Zealand captain Richie McCaw’s record of 148 test appearances, as hooker Sam Parry and winger Louis Rees-Zammit debuted as internationals off the bench.
Pivac’s men opened the scoring quickly when Leigh Halfpenny crossed for his 15th test attempt in 60 seconds after Gregory Alldritt dropped Dan Biggar’s kickoff.
Biggar scored his first penalty goal five minutes later before French prop Baille opened his international account just before the quarter hour.
When the locals made their way into mid-Wales after 20 minutes, spiker Francois Cros got along well and Bernard Le Roux cleared Jones in a ruck.
When the pair fell to the ground, the right elbow of the Racing 92 lock made contact with the face of the second row, but referee Karl Dickson missed the incident and was not picked up by the television match official.
Biggar took another penalty before the hosts took the lead after Vakatawa’s first class show after half an hour.
The New Zealand-born center found space near the touchline before unloading with one hand to find winger Teddy Thomas.
Dupont’s line of support was flawless as he cut off Thomas’ pass to cross on his first attempt and Romain Ntamack’s conversion made it 14-13.
The lead was extended five minutes before the break when Vakatawa again found space behind the defensive line before taking out Halfpenny to send Dupont for his first international double.
Ntamack and Biggar traded shots on goal and Galthie’s men had a 24-16 lead with a quarter of the game left before Biggar missed with an effort.
Winger Louis Rees-Zammit made his test pitch with 17 minutes to go before Biggar missed an opportunity to cut the gap to five points once more when his long-range penalty drifted to the left of the posts.
The victory was sealed with a quarter of an hour to go when home team captain Charles Ollivon charged and a conversion from Ntamack made it 31-16.
Replacement prop Nicky Smith crossed from close range, but Biggar missed the extras leaving eight points overall on the tee before Teddy Thomas crossed for Les Bleus’ fifth try with five minutes to go.
Scorers:
France
Attempts: Cyril Baille, Antoine Dupont (2), Charles Ollivon, Teddy Thomas
Conversions: Romain Ntamack (5)
Penalty: Ntamack
Welsh
Tries: Leigh Halfpenny, Nicky Smith
Conversion: Dan Biggar
Penalties: Biggar (3)
Teams:
France
15 Anthony Bouthier, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 12 Gael Fickou, 11 Vincent Rattez, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont, 8 Gregory Alldritt, 7 Charles Ollivon (captain), 6 Francois Cros, 5 Paul Willemse, 4 Bernard Le Roux, 3 Mohamed Haouas, 2 Julien Marchand, 1 Cyril Baille
Substitutes: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 18 Demba Bamba, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Dylan Cretin, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Thomas Ramos, 23 Arthur Vincent
Welsh
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Aaron Wainwright, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (captain), 4 Cory Hill, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ryan Elias, 1 Rhys Carre
Substitutes: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Seb Davies, 20 James Davies, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Louis Rees-Zammit
