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France leapfrog All Blacks to claim top spot in Pool A with utterly dominant win
LYON – The All Blacks will finish second in a Rugby World Cup group for the first time as France claimed pole position out of Pool A with an utterly dominant 60-7 win over Italy on Friday night.
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World-class wing Damian Penaud crossed for a first-half brace as Les Bleus ran riot at the home of French football side Olympique Lyonnais.
The Azzurri showed minor glimpses of promise, but it was nothing compared to the relentless rugby force that is France. Italy were simply lost for answers as Les Bleus ran away with a massive win.
France is expected to take on defending World Cup champions South Africa in a blockbuster quarterfinal next weekend, but Scotland can throw a spanner in the works against Ireland on Saturday.
But the host nation will be there in the next stage, and they’ll go into knockout rugby full of confidence and belief that they can go all the way at this Rugby World Cup.
French flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert kicked off this decisive pool play clash just after 9 pm, and it became clear almost immediately that this would be Les Bleus’ night.
Thousands of French fans let out a deafening cheer as world-class wing Damian Penaud crossed for the opening try of the Test in just the first minute.
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Unfortunately for the Azzurri, that score was a sign of things to come. Fullback Thomas Ramos kicked a long-range penalty a couple of minutes later and it was all one-way traffic from there.
Match Summary 
2
Penalty Goals
0
8
Tries
1
7
Conversions
1
0
Drop Goals
0
143
Carries
112
11
Line Breaks
4
7
Turnovers Lost
9
7
Turnovers Won
6
The French crowd were bouncing and cheering as their team regained possession after the kick-off and began to make their way up the field.
Penaud made an electrifying break through a concerningly large gap in the Italian defence, but the wing couldn’t quite link up with teammate Louis Bielle-Biarrey with a grubber kick.
But Penaud made amends just a minute later with the outside back hitting Bielle-Biarrey with a crossfield kick. Bielle-Biarrey still had plenty of work to do, but showed his class by beating three Italian defenders en route to the try line.
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With the 20-minute mark rapidly approaching, Les Bleus were in complete control. France had dominated the Test with 88% territory and 73% of possession.
The Azzurri had kicked most of their ball away and France made the most of it. Penaud came close to another try but a deflected offload saw Ramos cross unopposed instead. The sharpshooter added the extras to give the hosts a commanding 24-nil after just 22 minutes.
But Italy refused to throw in the towel. The Azzurri threw everything at their opponents with their best try-scoring opportunity of the half, and eventually prop Simone Ferrari crashed over – but it was called back for a high tackle.
The French crowd cheered once again as the referee’s decision was made official, but the Italians looked dejected, frustrated and somewhat broken. Nothing was going to plan.
France completed their first-half rout with flyhalf Jalibert setting Penaud up for his second with a clever cross-field kick. Jalibert was under pressure, too, with the playmaker hit as he kicked the ball.
Les Bleus took a commanding 31-nil lead into the sheds at half-time and emerged out of the tunnel after the break as almost an even better side.
Jalibert sliced through the Italian defence as Les Bleus piled on more point-scoring misery upon the Italians, and they weren’t done there either.
Hooker Peato Mauvaka scored a minute before he was replaced, and another score to replacement Yoram Moefana saw France hit the 50-point mark with just under 20 minutes to play.
But credit to the Italians, they kept fighting. With the Test clearly over the Azzurri scored with 10 minutes to play through reserve Manuel Zuliani.
The entire stadium roared as injured halfback Antoine Dupont was shown on the big screen, and this seemed to give Les Bleus a lift with Moefana crossing for another shortly after. Thomas Ramos completed France’s rout with a last-minute penalty.
Comments on RugbyPass
My heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
74 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
74 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to comments