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France snatch win over Wales with bizarre late drama

By Peter Thompson
Bruce Dulin in action against Wales

Damien Chouly scored the decisive try in the 100th minute in a farcical finish as France’s long wait for a win over Wales dramatically came to an end with a 20-18 victory at Stade de France in their final match of the Six Nations.

France came out firing on all cylinders in Paris looking to end the tournament on a high note by claiming a first win over Wales since the 2011 World Cup semi-final and they soon opened up a 10-0 lead.

Remi Lamerat crossed for the opening try in a breathless start, but Wales weathered the storm and were only 10-9 down at the break with Leigh Halfpenny scoring all the points from the tee.

Wales suffered a big blow when they lost captain Alun Wyn Jones, making his 100th start for his country, and Jake Ball early in the second half but Rob Howley’s men were heroic in defence and another three Halfpenny penalties put them 18-13 up.

But it was all hands to the pump for the visitors men as they attempted to withstand 20 minutes of added time. Samson Lee was sent to the sin bin in the 82nd minute by referee Wayne Barnes, who had to check with the TMO to dismiss a claim that Wales wing George North had been bitten. 

Barnes awarded France numerous penalties close to the Wales line and, with the clock ticking over to 100 minutes, Chouly barged over to level before Camille Lopez raised the roof by scoring the winning conversion to move Les Blues up to second ahead of Ireland’s clash with England.

France made a blistering start and Lopez’s early penalty dropped short before he dinked over the top for centre Lamarat, who grasped the ball and touched down for a richly deserved try after just six minutes.

Lopez made it 10-0 to rampant France after Wales where punished when a scrum went down, but Virimi Vakatawa was yellow-carded midway through the first half for a deliberate knock on when he got his hand in the way of Dan Biggar’s pass to George North.

North would surely have scored but for that intervention, Wales instead having to settle for two Leigh Halfpenny penalties while Vakatawa was in the bin.

After an early onslaught, Wales came into the game and would have been relieved to be just a point down at half-time after Halfpenny was given the simple task of slotting over for a third three-pointer.

France ramped up the pressure after the break, but had no points to show for it and Halfpenny expertly slotted over a penalty just in from the right touchline to put Wales in front for the first time at 12-9.

That Halfpenny effort came after skipper Jones and Ball picked up injuries, forcing Howley to employ hooker Scott Baldwin in the second row.

Whistles from the crowd grew louder as Halfpenny scored another two penalties either side of one from Lopez to put Wales 18-13 to the good with nine minutes to play.

It was nowhere near finished yet, though, with Tomas Francis coming back on to contest a scrum after Barnes checked if he had been replaced or injured following Ball’s yellow card before North claimed to have been bitten, with no evidence to prove it.

A France winner seemed inevitable and so it proved when Chouly finally went over and Lopez made no mistake with a simple conversion in a bizarre end.

 

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Jon 14 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 2 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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T
Trevor 7 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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