French lack the punch to worry Eddie in Le Crunch
FRANCE warmed up for Le Crunch by almost suffering Le Crash as they sneaked past Tonga in yet another unconvincing World Cup win.
The Pacific Islanders had hopes of a seismic shock when flanker Zane Kapeli caught Leon Fukofuka’s cross-kick on the left wing and scored to raptures in the stands with two minutes left.
Latiume Fosita hit the conversion and suddenly there was panic. But wing Damian Penaud chased the next kick-off, batted the ball back to the French side and they kicked out to win by two points.
It meant France qualified for the quarter-finals, as they have done in every World Cup. Despite hohum victories over Argentina, USA and now Tonga, they are up for the fight in the final Pool C game against Eddie Jones’ England.
French No 8 Gregory Alldritt said: ‘ We are not scared of anybody. No one scares us. We know that England are in good form, playing well, we are just going to try to play our best game without any pressure and we will see.
‘We will take them seriously and will try to play our best game to win. We know for the French people Le Crunch is important.
‘That impacts our mentality. We know it’s going to be a really tough game. We remember the Six Nations game where we gave a
petite performance.’ There is no shortage of personal motivation for Alldritt, as a Frenchman with a Scottish father and family in Inverness.
‘The key is to stop their ball carriers. England are a really structured team.
‘They kick well, can do everything and have a good defence. We will have to play to our system more than tonight.’
France raced into a commanding lead and were 17-0 up after half an hour.
Fijian- born fliers Alivereti Raka and Virimi Vakatawa dovetailed superbly for a score straight from the Pacific Islands against their old Tongan neighbours, with the former breaking and popping to the latter. Raka scored the sensational second all on his own — chipping his opposing winger, gathering and finishing in fine style. With an early Romain Ntamack penalty France looked like they could rack up a big win. But, as is the theme for their tournament, they suddenly slowed to a halt. Tane Takulua dived over from close range and converted then Cooper Vuna chipped ahead and eventually Malietoa Hingano was first to it bashing through the blue shirts to score. That made the French so nervous they kicked the next two penalties. Kapeli’s late try then gave Tonga a sniff but they just fell short.