French hit winning form as Thomas lands double

TEDDY Thomas cruised over for a brace of tries as France finally rediscovered winning ways and comfortably overcame the Pumas in Lille.

The impressive Racing wing and his team-mates ended a five-match losing streak to put a smile back on their home supporters.

They led 11-10 at the break and then had too much lethal ammunition in their stunning back division for their South American rivals to handle.

Wing Ramiro Moyano had given Argentina an early lead with a converted try with France losing fullback Maxime Medard injured in the build up to the score.

Wing Moyano took centre Jeronimo De La Fuente’s skilful offload in his stride and burst clear to dive under the posts. But that was as good as it got for the Pumas.

Baptiste Serin and Sanchez exchanged penalty blows before the French finally stepped up a couple of gears, and Thomas strolled across in the right hand corner after a scintillating move by the hosts from a line-out. Serin, Gael Fickou and Yoann Huget moved the ball wide and the rapid Thomas applied the accelerator.

Serin booted his side ahead for the first time in the 34th minute as the visitors defence began to crack under heavy pressure as well as indiscipline.

Sanchez poked Puma noses back in front with another penalty but the second half burst into life when the dancing feet of Fickou brilliantly took him past a couple of attempted tackles and down the middle towards the try line.

His mind was moving just as swiftly as he threw the perfect long pass out wide right to Thomas in acres of space and the wing grabbed his second try.

Sanchez almost engineered a swift response for the visitors as he darted his way through two Frenchmen and chipped through. Unfortunately, Moyano just failed to collect the ball with the line gaping.

Puma indiscipline took some of the pressure off the French. They gifted Serin the chance to increase the lead to eight points with just over ten minutes remaining.

Victory was sealed when a botched Argentine lineout near their own line was tipped into the grateful hands of France hooker Guilhem Guirado, who burrowed over for the third try converted by Serin.

Argentina were unable to break down the tough- tackling French defence even though Sanchez tried hard to conjure something special but the hosts deservedly celebrated their first victory since beating England in the Six Nations.