Wallabies crash to France as unwanted history is made in Paris

Pressure continues to mount on beleaguered coach Joe Schmidt after the Wallabies ended a disastrous spring tour with a damaging 48-33 loss to France in Paris.

Despite a vastly improved showing, after insipid displays against England, Italy and Ireland, the Wallabies have now endured a winless four-Test tour of Europe for the first time since 1958.

Perhaps even worse, Schmidt’s side are now also the first Australian outfit to lose 10 Tests in a calendar year as the Kiwi mentor’s winning percentage dipped below 40 per cent.

The Wallabies’ dead-rubber victory over the touring British and Irish Lions and a giddy first take-down of the world champion Springboks on the South African high veldt since 1963 feel light years away.

Les Kiss is contracted to take over from Schmidt after the inaugural Nations Championship next July, leaving the Queensland Reds coach little more than a year to ready the Wallabies for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

But calls for Schmidt to fall on his sword will inevitably grow louder after his winning strike rate slumped to 39 per cent – the second-worst for a Wallabies coach of 20 Tests or more in almost 60 years.

Only Dave Rennie’s 36 per cent return is worse and he was promptly fired by Rugby Australia after a similarly gloomy 2022 spring tour.

The sorry stats will overshadow an encouraging turnaround from the Wallabies at Stade de France on Saturday night (Sunday AEST).

After going to the break locked at 19-19, the battling tourists – led by some powerhouse efforts from the forward pack – threatened a shock win over the reigning European champions.

Props Taniela Tupou and Angus Bell and two-try hooker Matt Faessler were enormous, and skipper Harry Wilson typically inspirational.

Alas, the Wallabies once again proved little more than a 60-minute outfit as Les Bleus, inspired by electric winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, skipped out to a match-winning 16-point lead late on.

Clearly intent on trying to avoid an unwanted place in the history books, the Wallabies came out firing, with Wilson sending Bell on a thunderous run to put the visitors on the attack early.

Faessler cashed in with a pick-and-drive effort to give the Wallabies a 5-0 lead. In a sign of things to come, world player of the year nominee Bielle-Biarrey put centre Nicolas Depoortere over minutes later in a deadly French counterattack.

Bell put Australia back in front – 12-7 – with a barnstorming 30-metre runaway try after Jake Gordon’s quick tap had the French back-pedalling.

Fullback Thomas Ramos levelled the scores before a brilliant chip-chase try earned France a 19-12 advantage.

Faessler’s second try, from a driving maul after French scrumhalf Maximi Lucu was yellow carded, locked the Test up at halftime.

Depoortere’s second try and a Ramos penalty helped France to a 27-19 lead before classy winger Max Jorgensen produced a magical solo try to reduce the deficit to a point.

That was as close as the Wallabies would get as further tries to Bielle-Biarrey and hookers Julien Marchand and Maxime Lamothe – and 10 second-half penalties – killed off Australian hopes.

The Wallabies had needed to win by 16 points to snatch an all-important top-six seeding for next month’s 2027 World Cup draw.

Instead the 15-point loss will leave the tournament hosts staring down a sudden-death round-of-16 showdown with one of global heavyweights like South Africa, New Zealand, France, Ireland or England.