Sunday, July 06, 2008
Wallabies rampant against the French in Brisbane
A second-half double from replacement centre Ryan Cross capped a dominant display as the hosts stormed to a 40-10 win - their biggest victory over France in 38 meetings. Matt Giteau was superb throughout, kicking eight from eight with the boot and delivering the final ball for each of the Wallabies' four tries. The fly-half set up a score for Peter Hynes before a superb break and reverse offload saw lock James Horwill touch down for a 26-3 half-time lead.
It was a miserable night for France. Despite dominating possession in the opening half, their sole reward was one penalty - from Francois Trinh-Duc - following an ugly scrap which left Horwill with a black eye after exchanging blows with France No8 Imanol Harinordoquy. They didn't breach the Wallabies' defence until the 79th minute when Trinh-Duc crossed for a consolation try that was insufficient to stave off the ignominy of a record defeat.
Australia will certainly encounter more resistance against their southern hemisphere rivals than they did against the French. The new national team coach, Robbie Dean, will take satisfaction from the strongest team performance to date under his stewardship. But the victory came at a cost, with James Horwill (eye), Berrick Barnes (shoulder) and Cameron Shepherd (ankle) all suffering injuries.
UPDATE: Video has been removed by Mediazone.
Time: 05:09
Article: the Guardian
Posted at 4:35 pm | 19 comments
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Viewing 19 comments
el nino July 06, 2008 3:30 pm
french were appauling need players like heymans and clerc bak shud get medard in the team aswell, mayb rougerie
Will July 06, 2008 3:50 pm
Heymans et al were still resting after the Top14 final.. Personally I found a bit of joy in the fact that I only knew two of the French starting back-line and that they were mostly (if not all) young guys.. Not all of them will make it but in a couple of years when some are playing regularly they'll have the confidence at international level
el nino July 06, 2008 4:20 pm
yeh i kno i watch the finalit wud of been such an awesome match if france were able to feild a 1st team that palisson guy looks alrite(ish)mayb 1 4 th future
Fell July 06, 2008 4:33 pm
Come oooooon 'Miserable night for France'. They weren't even playing a 2nd string side, what did anyone expect!
mitchy July 06, 2008 5:10 pm
heymans should be playing he is awsome and would have changed the result.(but australia wuold have still won.)giuto s good though
Sharky July 06, 2008 5:22 pm
Pointless two test matches. HUGE failure by the IRB and whoever else involved in terms of planning. Top14 final on at the same time as this little series. What a joke. Aussies scored some great tries, but you've got to feel for 'France'.
Tom July 06, 2008 6:18 pm
I definitely agree with Sharky, these test matches are totally pointless for the northern hemisphere nations which just finished a very long season and whose players are exhausted. The case of the French team is even worse since the top14 was not even over...Nice punch by Harinordoquy though,the Aussie deserved his black eye and this time no one can say that the French started the fight...
Anonymous July 06, 2008 6:27 pm
I really don't agree with "miserable nigh title for France"The reasons?First : The season in France started on july 3rd 2007 and finished on july 4th 2008. The other I was reading an interview of Kelleher in a famous newspaper. He said he didn't expect such a long and hardseason (a game every week sometimes,2).French teams and players didn't hav a break for a year. That's really too much.Just look a Trinh-Duc after his try. It's obvious the only thing he thinks about is : "it's finally over".Second : Great thing mad by the french fedration : the final of the championship was the previous week. People in the french board are really too stupid. So we had to send a young (too young?) team. That's good because they will lead the french team in a few years but, for the moment, they'r not rival to Australian power.Third: As i said, French finished the season ans Asutralian were beginning the tri nations.Now about the game, of course France lost but if was an aussie I would feel strange. The asutralian scrum was pretty weak. 3 tried were scored because of naive french players. And when the french players succeded in putiting pressure on australian backs, it was ach time a handling error. What to expect against the blacks? I don't know.As Sharky said, these test bcome pointless. We urgently need to do something if don't want these game to become boring, meaningless.
Dave July 06, 2008 6:54 pm
what's the song they play after they score a try for the Walabies when they are at home?
Ulf July 06, 2008 9:04 pm
I feel sorry for french players who played as hard as they could and come home with such an upsetting result. But the team is young, coach are testing things and we still have a few reasons to hope. By the way, could we see the video of that Tuqiri / Palisson thing from the first test match i keep hearing about over here : )
Anonymous July 06, 2008 10:44 pm
Im' the anonymous who posted before dave. I agree with Ulf (not only coz I'm french) but it's true team was very young. Trinh Duc who is 21 years old and who has 6 caps was the most experienced player in the backline.I expect a bright future for us too.
mark July 07, 2008 12:18 am
Wallabies didn't look convincing despite what the scoreline might suggest.Hopefully their game against South Africa will be entertaining.Unfortunate for Shepherd who broke his leg
Randorama July 07, 2008 2:00 am
It's me or Baxter was basically null? I kept seeing him going down at every single scrum...
Flooz July 07, 2008 12:00 pm
i just love this reverse pass from giteau (2nd try) very classy!Not surprised to see french team lose the match, they tried with their forces of the moment which mean: not a lot... against aussies which prepare tri-nationsIRB should think about the programmation of these North vs south tests.
Greiffel July 07, 2008 12:29 pm
'By the way, could we see the video of that Tuqiri / Palisson thing from the first test match i keep hearing about over here 'Anyone know what Ulf is referring to there?
Chazza July 07, 2008 1:36 pm
^^^hes refferng to when Pallson pulled down Lotes pants by accdent and then chabal was gvng hm all hell for t after the match sayng stuff lke you shouldnt have done that Lote s much bgger than you!!
Ulf July 08, 2008 8:58 pm
Come on guys ! : )The story I heard was this one : on an interview, young Alexis Palisson said something like "I'm not impressed playing against Tuqiri. He must have some weaknesses" which was kind of badly translated by the australian press into "I am gonna pull Tuqiri's pant down!" : )Now, it seems that, for their first encounter on the field, Palisson was really too fast for him.
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