France win in honour of Dominici

France’s heart-broken players mourned Christophe Dominici and then the makeshift side overcame Italy 36-5 yesterday to set up an Autumn Nations Cup final against England.

Dominici’s first try for France was on his international debut against England 22 years ago, and it came as the newly built Stade de France hosted its first test.

Perhaps fitting, then, that French rugby waved goodbye to one of its favourite sons on a field where he scored six of his 25 international tries and another three in club rugby finals.

Aminute’s silence was held at Stade de France for Dominici, who died last week at the age of 48, and French Rugby Federation president Bernard Laporte teared up. The players wore his nickname ‘Domi’ on their left sleeves. A giant photo of Dominici covered a section of the empty stands.

Also on hand were France coach Fabien Galthie, who was Dominici’s friend, team-mate and club coach at Stade Francais, and former Stade Francais president Max Guazzini.

‘‘He had the gift of sharing,’’ former team-mate Vincent Clerc said on French television. ‘‘He was someone we liked having next to us.’’

The test was also amilestone for Welsh referee Nigel Owens, his 100th in charge. He was chuffed.

‘‘It’s nice to get that century. To be the first is very special,’’ Owens said.

Five tries were scored by a France team with 13 changes from the win in Scotland last week, including starts for five debutants as part of an agreement with clubs to rotate players. Six more players made their debuts off the bench.

Flanker Sekou Macalou’s lastgasp try padded the score for a young French side, but did not fully reflect how difficult it was early on against the feisty Italians.

‘‘We had little time to prepare together, so that was not normal, ‘‘ halfback and stand-in captain Baptiste Serin said. ‘‘But we gave anything and I’mproud for the young players who came in.’’

France topped their group and face Six Nations champions England at Twickenham this weekend.