Safety-first France book place in final
AN experimental France side ran in five tries against a dogged Italy in Paris to book their place in the Autumn Nations Cup final against England at Twickenham next weekend
They did it without Ntamack, Dupont, Vakatawa, or Fickou. There was no Ollivon, Alldritt, Marchand, or Le Roux. France blooded 11 debutants and named a starting pack with 13 caps between them. Since the turn of the millennium, France have twice fielded sides with as little experience or less – notably in Argentina in July 2016, and against New Zealand at graveyard Eden Park in 2007. They lost both times.
Baptiste Serin, captain and France's most-capped player last night, had made his debut in that match in Argentina.
The new-look side was not a whim of head coach Fabien Galthie, but an effect of an player-release agreement between the FFR and LNR for the extended endof-year international window. Limited to three selections per player, Galthie front-loaded his selections, keeping his firstchoice side together for the first three games, before picking a near-entirely fresh squad for the closing stages of the Autumn Nations Cup.
Even so, after France were handed a 28-0 victory over Fiji following a coronavirus outbreak in the Pacific Islanders’ camp, and beat Scotland in Edinburgh for the first time since 2014, a place in the final was very much the publicly-stated target.
With just a few days' preparation, it was no surprise France kept their gameplan simple and kicked for-territory or that they selected an allToulouse front row and reunited former Bordeaux halfback colleagues Baptiste Serin and Matthieu Jalibert.
France were content to kick and defend, tackle and counter after Jalibert had kicked them into a thirdminute lead, until Italy's Carlo Canna, somewhat against the run of play, scored the game's first try after 25 minutes, cruising through as the hosts ran out of defenders.
They were the only points Italy would score. France decided to play a little - and the Azzurri were reduced to the role of training ground opponents. First, they struggled to cope with the smart kick-and- chase from playerof-the-match Brice Dulin, an old head these days in his first selection since 2017. Moments later, Jonathan Danty powered through two Italian defenders from short range after a 5m lineout.
The second half ran to expectation. When Italy winger Trulla was sinbinned for a deliberate knock-on after 54 minutes, France took advantage. A minute later, debutant and promising Lyon lock Killian Geraci stole a lineout, Serin fired a pass to his Toulon team-mate, another firstcapper Gabin Villiere, who put his Sevens pace to tryscoring use. He even had time to kiss the ball as he scooted to the line.
The floodgates threatened to open. Serin, of all players, came up with the ball after the forwards had mauled their way over from close range on the hour. Then Dulin ran rather than kicked, and released Thomas, who had been almost anonymous to that point, to run-in for the bonus-point try.
Italy were able to keep France out until the closing seconds, when Sekou Macalou crashed over after some intricate close passing.