NORTH’S TRY SETS UP WIN FOR GATLAND
Rampaging Wales wing ends French Slam dream
WALES did not exactly raise the roof in Cardiff, but Warren Gatland’s side remained firmly in the RBS 6 Nations title chase. George North scored their only try — a somewhat lucky effort early in the second half — to guide the hosts to a fifth consecutive victory over France for the first time in more than 50 years.
A broken roof did little to affect the result, since France could barely lay the basic foundations as their revolution looked short of generals under new coach Guy Noves.
Cardiff’s ‘Friday Night Lights’ were compared to a boxing match by Jules Plisson in the week. The France No 10 described his previous visit to Wales,ales, in 2014, as the most painful night of his career, having felt the full force off Gatland’s ‘squadron of f bodybuilders’.
This is the site where Joe Calzaghe unified the super middleweight titles against Mikkel Kessler in 2008 but, despite Wales’ imposing physicality, they are not a side that resort to fisticuffs. Still, Plisson showed signs that he was haunted by that night, throwing a wild early forward pass to his wing after 24 seconds.
Wales sensed the fear in the French ranks. They dominated the early territory and possession, with Dan Biggar putting boot to ball at every opportunity to test an inexperienced back three, yet failed to capitalise on the territory.
The Wales forwards stood out in the backline, looking for defensive mismatches, but the accumulation of phases fizzled out when Jefferson Poirot turned over Rob Evans.
With the roof open, the elements played their part. Both fly-halves missed early kicks at goal and the capacity crowd waited 21 minutes for a score. Paul Jedrasiak was penalised for a late shoulder charge on Toby Faletau — similar to Yoann Maestri’s heavily scrutinised cheap shot on Johnny Sexton in Paris — and Biggar kicked three points.
The stand- off doubled the lead eight minutes later when Sam Warburton scrambled Antoine Burban’s senses with a powerful carry and Alun Wyn Jones won a penalty at the breakdown.
Having made five changes from the team that beat Ireland in round two, Noves is still looking for the optimum formula with his new team. He is searching for the French soul but, on this evidence, their new identity is more ‘crash, crash’ than ‘joue, joue’.
There was a momentary glimpse of French magic in the 34th minute when Sevens wing Virimi Vakatawa broke through, but that was the only test of Shaun Edwards’ defensive system in the first half.
Under the steely eye of Edwards, the Welsh defence has become one of the world’s strongest. France had scored only one try in the last five meetings between the sides and any flair was quickly extinguished last night.
Wales held out for 11 phases, but Wayne Barnes went back for a no-arms tackle by Dan Lydiate. Plisson found his range and Les Bleus had to settle for just three points.
The hosts should have turned the screw before the break but offered little to silence claims about a lack try-scoring potency. Gareth Davies broke from a scrum but, with a sizable overlap, was unable to spin the ball wide and instead kicked for the corner, and Maxime Medard intervened with a desperate hack to deny Liam Williams.
Another opportunity went begging when Scott Baldwin was penalised for holding on just before half-time.
Fitness was always likely to count against France in the second half. Unlike Gatland and Wales, Noves has little power over his players during the Six Nations rest weekends.
Wales opted to release only two of their starting XV — Lydiate and Alex Cuthbert — for club action last weekend, while French clubs had the option to recall all of their Test players.
After Biggar (below) edged Wales further ahead with his third penalty in the 43rd minute, Wales finally found the try- scoring breakthrough. Poirot knocked on in the Welsh half, Jonathan Davies had the vision to kick the ball into a vast space behind the defence and North gave chase. The wing missed the loose ball at his first attempt but, after a moment of madness from Plisson, the ball bounced back into his path and North took his second invitation to score.
Normal order was restored to the Welsh back row, with Lydiate returning to partner Warburton on the flanks. Against England in two weeks time, Gatland may call back Justin Tipuric to exploit the lack of pace between Chris Robshaw, James Haskell and Billy Vunipola. But when France rallied in the second half, the back-row pairing showed their defensive qualities, holding off the French driving lineout and ushering Medard to the safety of the touchlines. Wales held off waves of French attack before an interception by North eased the pressure and allowed the hosts to clear. Jamie Roberts attacked through defence and pinned France back into their own half, allowing Biggar to score his fourth penalty after 65 minutes, putting Wales three scores clear.
French pressure finally earned its rewards with 90 seconds left when France captain Guilhem Guirado drove over from a maul following a lineout five metres out.
It mattered little. France were well beaten, and only England can still entertain hopes of a Grand Slam.