Bolt from Les Bleus
French keep Grand Slam hopes on track with magnificent rearguard display to thwart Welsh in pulsating clash
This time the Dragons did not leap out of the fire, this time Les Bleus did not blow out of puff. Inspired by a defence that had Shaun Edwards written all over it, the young French revolutionaries kept their Grand Slam dreams alive in a pulsating encounter that gripped from start to finish.
As Edwards promised, he did not celebrate, but inside he must have been boiling over with pride. France burst into their customary early lead against the Welsh but proved their newfound mettle by holding out when the red tide seemed unstoppable. The Principality Stadium has seen this before – the Edwards defensive system made him an honorary Welshman after all.
However, he came back to haunt those Welsh Rugby Union officials who believed it was wise only to offer him a two-year contract to remain, compared with the four years he accepted across the channel. France made 106 tackles in the first half alone. “We know they have a very good defence coach and they were the embodiment of that today,” Alun Wyn Jones, the captain, said.
That makes it two defeats in three Six Nations games for Wayne Pivac and it is fair to say, after Wales’s first Six Nations home defeat in three years, that his honeymoon as Warren Gatland’s successor is well and truly over.
They went in with 859 caps, the most ever to take the field in the championship, but when they needed it most, experience was not enough. Gatland’s men possessed a resilience and a steel that has suddenly gone missing. Wales have two games to pick some respectability out of the rubble, but there is no silverware on the line and as the reigning champions they expected so much more. At least they had a grievance as consolation.
“The slapdown – the officials may have got that one wrong,” Pivac said, referring to what should have been given as a deliberate knock-on, late. “We don’t like losing at home, the boys had built up a proud record. But we’re still confident we’re heading in the right direction.”
That feeling might not be unanimous in Wales. In contrast, joyous, exuberant France go to Scotland with the title in sight. They are well aware that the last time they won a Six Nations encounter in Cardiff was in 2010. And that just happened to be the last time they won the Grand Slam.
“We have no experience, but we play with a smile,” Romain Ntamack, their man-of-the-match outside half, said. “We aren’t thinking about the Grand Slam – we’re just taking one game at a
time.” Wales have become well accustomed to conceding early ground to France, having been 16-0 to the bad at half-time in last year’s corresponding match and then 12-0 down in the quarter-final of the World Cup four months ago. A fine Dan Biggar penalty handed them first blood, yet it was a short-lived superiority.
In the seventh minute, Ntamack sent the ball skywards before Leigh Halfpenny made a rare, defensive error in spilling the catch and the bounce fell obligingly into the hands of Anthony
Bouthier. Wales were behind again, but four minutes later any foreboding was transformed into deep concern. George North went up for a Biggar cross-kick, but as Gael Fickou challenged, the wing’s shoulder unwittingly caught North squarely in the jaw.
The 27-year-old was out before he hit the ground and although he regained consciousness within a few seconds, his evening’s work was clearly over. The HIA was unnecessary.
Ntamack and Biggar traded penalties and France believed they had extended their lead through Fickou before the TMO’s forward pass ruling. No matter, within a few minutes, lock Paul Willemse was storming across the whitewash and Wales were staring up a Gallic mountain again.
A Biggar penalty brought them close but they will long wonder how they did not manage to touch down following the yellow card shown to No8 Gregory Alldritt. Wales eschewed the three points to go for a try that was never to prevail. Within five minutes of the restart, Alldritt was back on with the scoreboard unaltered.
Wales did eventually crash over, with tighthead Dillon Lewis applying the necessaries. There was a point in it, but Ntamack restored his side’s breathing space when intercepting Nick
Tompkins’s loose pass, to run the 60 yards between the sticks.
Another Ntamack penalty gave the French an 11-point cushion going into the final 15 minutes and then came the encounter’s most controversial moment. Wales were again hammering away in the 22, when Ken Owens sought to put Josh Adams in at the corner. Yet, as the pass made its seemingly inexorable way to the wing, Willemse stuck out his hand.
It was blatantly deliberate and might even have warranted a penalty try and a yellow card. Yet somehow, Matthew Carley – refereeing just his second Six Nations game – his assistants and the TMO, saw it as nothing more than a Welsh scrum. Soon after, Demba Bamba, the replacement tighthead, was awarded a penalty that should have gone the other way. “There was probably a case for a couple of penalty tries out there,” Wyn Jones said.
It was exhilarating fare and when, in the 74th minute, Biggar touched down after a glorious passage featuring
Aaron Wainwright and Will Rowlands, the contest was awarded the finale it deserved. Five minutes to go, four in it and when Tompkins broke through with the seconds counting down, another audacious comeback was on. But, as they had all night, the French rearguard held strong.
The match finished in an unseemly melee, inevitably including the everupset Biggar. However, nothing was knocking that smile off French faces.