Saturday, February 27, 2010
France stay on track for Grand Slam with win over Wales
France led 20-0 at halftime following intercept tries by Alexis Palisson and Francois Trinh-Duc, but allowed Wales back in the game in the second half, allowing them to get within seven points and sniffing a win.
Penalties from replacement Frederic Michalak and another by Morgon Parra gave France their third successive win, despite a brilliant solo try scored at the end by Shane Williams.
Welsh coach Warren Gatland was optimistic, insisting his team are on the right track.
"If we can stop being our own worst enemies and get it right we are not far away from being a very good side. At no stage did we feel under pressure because I don't think they played a lot of rugby," he said.
"We could have thrown in the towel at half-time, but we played some fantastic rugby in the second-half and showed some great character and put ourselves in a position to win the game.
"We were the architects of our own demise. Two intercept tries were really costly. It is hugely frustrating. Our fitness was superb, and we had France on the ropes. They were out on their feet. There was only one team playing rugby, and we had 70% territory and possession in that second-half," he added.
Defence coach Shaun Edwards felt that there was a trend towards their side giving away easy intercept tries.
"To keep France to no offensive tries was a great effort. But there is no doubt people are doing their homework and have seen they can get intercepts, because more than 30% of our tries conceded over the last 18 months have come from intercepts," he said.
Posted at 10:17 am | 60 comments
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Viewing 60 comments
matt February 27, 2010 12:17 pm

we didnt play nowhere near good enough! well done to france.
not sure how the score line wasent more.
we need to sort it out.
Karas February 27, 2010 12:32 pm

3/4 centre February 27, 2010 12:37 pm

I'm french and I think all french supporters are disappointed with this match. Les bleus didn't produce any game, even in the first half!!! Wales was the only team playing rugby on the field. Scotland deserved more to win at the Millenium than France... but we resisted well against welsh fire during the second half. The defense is the only satisfaction for the blue side, with the win.
Fance is looking forward to the Grand Slam now.
David February 27, 2010 12:44 pm

Great french defense, Well done to them i spose. Great to see Shane back on form.. even if he did throw that stupid offload.
Anonymous February 27, 2010 12:49 pm

matt February 27, 2010 12:50 pm

David February 27, 2010 12:53 pm

We'd of probs done the same.. Gutting to lose tho.. Just once i'd like to see my team start well and not play catchup for the whole match. Its stressful being a welsh fan sometimes. :D
Axel February 27, 2010 1:28 pm

Murf February 27, 2010 1:28 pm

Anon,
Welcome to the professional era of rugby. But no penalty here, as kicking the ball directly or not into touch is not an offense or an infringement according to the law.
Time was over, French got the possession, they could do what they wanted to do. By default, no penalty but a scrum.
Talking of Sportmanship, wasn't the first Wales try coming from an obvious forward pass ? Didn't hear anybody on that topic.
All fair to Wales, they gave us a pleasant second half, pity they didn't play with this mood the all game.
Anonymous February 27, 2010 1:45 pm

That guy is a rugby legend.
Calon Lan February 27, 2010 1:51 pm

There was plenty of attacking from the Welsh but they allowed three or four tries to go astray due to amateurish mistakes all over the pitch.
Just like the Wales v England match I can help but feel it was a matter of Wales losing rather than the other team winning.
Another fantastic try by Shane Williams who seems to back approaching form this year.
I'm absolutely disgusted by a few French voices shouting during the minutes silence for Bradley Davies' mother. People can boo and jeer as much as they please when people are taking kicks, that's a part of the game but doing it at the time they did achieves nothing and should not be tolerated! I would have had them thrown out of the stadium.
I felt ashamed and disgusted to be a rugby when that happened and those few French voices!
3/4 centre February 27, 2010 2:26 pm

jpm February 27, 2010 2:51 pm

Anonymous February 27, 2010 2:58 pm

You're a cunt, the guy was playing just a few days after his mother had died.
And for your information it's happened on numerous occasions in football which is a much bigger and more professional sport. The most recent occasion was Jack Collison playing for West Ham just days after his father died in a motorcycle accident on the way to the previous match.
Calon Lan February 27, 2010 3:07 pm

Calon lan, how can you say that the boo came from french supporters? Sorry but it could be a drunk man who wanted to be remarked by his friend or this kind of asshole, as it could be a french idiot.
It could of course been idiots wearing any coloured shirts and it 's as inexcusable wherever they were from.
They were shouting in French and I'm willing to take a gamble and rule out the chances that it came from a visiting party of Canadian's attending the conference centre so that narrows it down somewhat.
Of course, there's no guarantee that it was a few of what were an otherwise brilliant French crowd who were shouting in French. At least those idiots were shut up by other French supporters in the crowd.
There's been comments elsewhere that they didn't understand what was happening at the time which is strange as it was announced in French and I can't really think of what else they thought could be happening.
If it was anything to do with me after they would have been straight out of the stadium after it happened and deported. No questions, straight out!
There's really no place for that sort of behaviour in rugby whatever nationality the person it's for is.
Anonymous February 27, 2010 3:53 pm

Ben February 27, 2010 4:39 pm

But weird on few things:
2 interception tries from the french and it is not their speciality. i think it's due to their "attacking" defence during the 1st half
Weird as the 20 minutes absence of the french after the half time. Lievremont said "it was still a mystery to resolve"
Weird as, the fantastic reactions of the welsh these last 3 games?
Weird like the yellow card to morgan parra, what did he do? The commenbtators on french tv couldn't argue..?
Weird like the curious reffering from K.Kaplan, he never penalised the "attacking" team in the rucks
And weird as the 2 incredible wrong kicks of Lee Byrne, it may cost them a better result..
Anonymous February 27, 2010 5:50 pm

like someone stated, they be daft to give wales the chance like scotland gave them...
Flooz February 27, 2010 6:08 pm

funny allusion :) U mean should have taken the risk to give an other chance to the welsh..? They just simply played tactical, throwing the ball in touch with a bounce.
Back to the match, it was quite entertaining: France defended very well during the 40 first minutes, always putting pressure on the welsh. Their interceptions were the prefect result. Red devils gave a very positive answer during 20 minutes. But their attacks was a bit messy.
Wales could have done better if they didn't play "in reaction. Gatland said they killed themselves..
Well, hm, ok, so he prefer to suicide his team than reckon the quality of the opposition..?
A word on the referring, i think french and welsh were pretty astonished by J.Kaplan. Very severe on little fouls and very liberal with the advantages (the result of the 2 welsh tries)
If France keep their incredible defence and be concentrate and more lethal during 80 minutes, they'll be invincible...
kevdetoulouse February 27, 2010 7:25 pm

HEHEHE YEAH! AND A PENALTY TRY!EVERYBODY DOES THE SAME BUT FRANCE HAD TO GIVE BACK THE BALL IN THE LAST MINUTE TO THE WELSH-LAST-MINUTE PITTBULLS!
YOU'RE REAL FUNNY
"I'm absolutely disgusted by a few French voices shouting during the minutes silence for Bradley Davies' mother."
PUT YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN! ASSHOLES DON'T HAVE COLOURS! THEY CAN BE WELSH, FRENCH OR JAPANESE!
THE FUNNY THING ABOUT THESE COMMENTS IS THAT I FEEL THAT FRUSTRATION IS SLOWLY LEADING TO HATE TOWARDS THE FRENCH.
WELL SORRY BOYZ... MIGHT HATE US MORE IN A FEW WEEKS...
Nico February 27, 2010 7:56 pm

Is it just me or Warren Gatland is really an arse? Not criticizing the coach here but the man. Whatever the outcome of a game, his team is always the best and the should have won!!!! Geez, he was even praising Wales after the pathetic display against Scotland and their questionable win.
Bloody irritating to a non-Welsh. To me, it far exceeds self-motivation and it is downright arrogant. How is he perceived in Wales with this kind of talk? Welsh friends around?
Maximus February 27, 2010 8:29 pm

Disappointed because the French never really played rugby, let's be honest. A tremendous defense but they didn't find any solution to break the Welsh defense, that's what bothers me the most. (well, of course, you can't find solution to break lines when you don't have ball possession)
But I'm pleased because they used to lose these sorts of matches and their tries are mere interceptions, ok, but provoked by an aggressive intelligent defense.
The ref was anything but consistent, one half for each team. Chabal gaining the ball standing in a ruck while Welsh are contesting lying on the ground, penalty against Chabal. Good one.
Classy try by Shane Williams but he gets space at the beginning of his race because everybody stopped running, there was a hell of a knock on.
Let's try to play AND WIN against Italia.
Calon Lan February 27, 2010 9:05 pm

PUT YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN! ASSHOLES DON'T HAVE COLOURS! THEY CAN BE WELSH, FRENCH OR JAPANESE!
I actually mentioned several times that it wasn't a whole nation that was responsible for what happened.
I believe I also complimented the rest of the visiting crowd for their behaviour yesterday.
As I clearly mentioned a couple of times, nationality has nothing at all to do with what happened.
Idiots live in all countries just as people who don't read posts that they are replying to and then type their replies in CAPITALS do.
1) The French people I know personally are fantastic.
2) The French people in my family are also fantastic.
3) My French wife is without a doubt the best damn thing on the planet!!
All of those good things are nothing to do with nationality though, it's irrelevant to how I feel about people.
I certainly don't feel frustrated by what's happened, I feel more disappointed that there are people who have no respect for others when they are having a difficult time.
I appreciate that you're happy for France to finally be winning something as it's been a while. Fair play to them and to their fans for having three victories out of three.
They have played well in the previous two games which I've mentioned on more than one occasion on here and I still have them down as the favourites to win this championship but they are going to need to improve on how they played yesterday if they want to win a Grand Slam.
I'm not so sure that it's appropriate to be so boastful about yesterday's victory when your team played so badly and had so much help from the Welsh team.
A victory will always be a victory and should be celebrated as such but with victory there should also be understanding of the smaller victories and failures within it.
Nico February 27, 2010 9:50 pm

On the French side, nothing to boast about yesterday's victory indeed (players and coaches are the first to admit it). Just pointing out here that not all French supporters believe in a anti-French conspiracy and hate, as kevdetoulouse. :-)
@kevdetoulouse: chill out, son.
Looking forward to Ireland-Wales in a fortnight and France-England a week later!
Flooz February 28, 2010 12:33 am

I agree with few comments about warren gatland. He always seems to have answer to everything:
Wales lost against england because of AW Jones sin bin
Wales won against scotland because of their soul (without mentioning the 2 sin bin of the opposition)
Wales lost vs France, but they play rugby and french didn't...
Gatland should really grow up...
Anonymous February 28, 2010 12:34 am

Phil February 28, 2010 12:36 am

Williams scored the same type of weird try vs argentina in november...
a perfect example that u must continue to play despite the appearance :)
Gman February 28, 2010 12:37 am

CALI February 28, 2010 12:46 am

We lost against england because AW Jones was sin binned. Well, how can france have won with parra out during 10 minutes?
mathematics sometimes lie sir...
quis February 28, 2010 12:49 am

Anonymous February 28, 2010 1:45 am

jones February 28, 2010 1:52 am

Calon Lan February 28, 2010 2:42 am

Calon Lan, how can you say "they were shouting in french" ???! You really did understand what they were yelling and in which tong??? Wow man hats off cause personnaly i didn't understand a word they were yelling, i couldn't even say if it was french or english...
No need to take your hat off to me, it took no effort at all to understand what language they were using as I'm not exactly a stranger to the language and because we were sitting so close to them.
I certainly wouldn't have been able to hold a conversation with them in French as my French is very, very basic at the moment.
I'm surprised the language being used wasn't obvious to all in the stadium as everybody who wasn't shouting out really loudly in French was obeying the one minute silence as was requested of them.
Calon Lan February 28, 2010 2:45 am

Anonymous February 28, 2010 5:03 am

Maximus February 28, 2010 9:30 am

Back to the topic, excellent performance by the French when they were 14 vs 15. Again, we used to lose with this scenario.
Calon Lan & Co, I watched the match on TV and, even though it's still shameful, I heard no shouts at all during this minute of silence.
Anonymous February 28, 2010 12:16 pm

From a welshman, i felt the french did just enough to win but still disappointing to lose. The french seemed to completely switch off in the second half.
Wouldn't suprise me if they got the grand slam now and good luck to them.
Oli February 28, 2010 12:28 pm

Lol, biggest loser's satisfaction i have heard in a while
Anonymous February 28, 2010 1:08 pm

Maximus February 28, 2010 1:28 pm

Mind that I'm not trying to defend them since brainless French going abroad and behaving as if they owned the place belong to the top of my most hated persons list. I hate them even more if they can't shut the hell up for a minute at a rugby match. Even if they're drunk.
Back to the topic again, nobody's got the feeling that in second half the ref acted as if he had thought "well, now, I'm for Wales"? (for good or bad reason, it's not my question, I'm just asking about the clear cut change of refereeing)
Anonymous February 28, 2010 1:52 pm

Well done Wales for that fantastic 2nd half
Gavin February 28, 2010 2:05 pm

I'm glad Flannery called Palisson - he certainly deserved an apology for that crazy kick. I have not seen the video but I have heard that Flannery was hit on the head about a minute before this incident - perhaps his brain wasn't working very well at the time.
David February 28, 2010 3:59 pm

Didn't matter tho, they were too good.
Gavin February 28, 2010 5:07 pm

France should win the 6 nations now - they are definitely the best team this year. I'll be cheering for them in the World Cup when Ireland get knocked out :)
The Caped Crusader February 28, 2010 11:06 pm

The Caped Crusader February 28, 2010 11:06 pm

Gman March 01, 2010 2:33 am

kevdetoulouse March 01, 2010 3:13 am

What I wanted to tell u is that there was no point of precising the nationality of these fuckers. But I got that it wasn't the intention...
I just feel the general tone of british irish fellas gets quite violent as the French win (not on RD especially)
Btw, my mum's irish, my dad spanish and my girlfriend mexican. Let me tell you it can be tough sometimes at home!;)
kevdetoulouse March 01, 2010 3:17 am

t'inquiete pitchoun, chuis pas enerv pour deux sous ;)
AskelKana March 01, 2010 2:27 pm

Hook was downright awful: he seemed to be wearing oven gloves, his passing was that bad.
BTW, Parra was sin-binned for slapping down the ball (aka deliberate knock-on?)
No point moaning about the forward pass for Wales' 1st try, as the French had plenty of those too (fwd-passes, that is).
My final observation is that I think Ireland made France look better than they are: I, for one, was expecting a less impressive performance, and was spot on with that.
mat March 01, 2010 2:28 pm

Parra was binned cause he was on the ground offside at the ruck and slapped the ball away, but the ref played advantage and halfpenny scored, he was shown the card after the try, thats why you didn't see it, the game went on and it was not shown on tv.
It was certainly a yellow card on its own, but the ref had already warned france twice, someone should have gone earlier when they collapsed the maul in their 22 after being warned.
Fucking Frenchman March 01, 2010 10:52 pm

Frankie March 02, 2010 2:21 pm

I'm French and was in the stadium with welsh mates. None of us undertsood what was said over the tannoy and only realised there must be a minute of silence when the crowd gradually quietend down. I think this was the same for everyone around us.
There defo were shouts at the beginning but we were unable to understand the language/what was said..
The tannoy announcements were unintelligible to us during the entire game... we weren't even pi$$ed.
Good game to watch! :)
Alexander March 03, 2010 2:26 am

Plus, is it me or is Warren Gatland lacking a little humbleness and respect for other nations. Couldn't say a decent word of praise for the French!!
Javi March 03, 2010 6:17 am

Unfortunate, too, since so often, it's those little flicks where he keeps the ball in play that end up looking skillful. This time, it didn't work out.
Oh well, now I just sit back and wonder if anyone can stop France at this point.
Murf March 03, 2010 12:09 pm

Indeed the French take defeat graciously especially if the All Black are involved because they admire them.
Last year, they were trashed by the English and guess what, they were not moaning about details, referee or something else. In fact they praised the way the English played. I don't think everybody could do the same in the Home Nations.
But there was another example last year, after their defeat against Ireland at Croke Park, they complained a bit about the referee as he was, according to them, only penalizing one side for infringements the both teams made.
And above everything else, they're hard on their own team, I looked to their comments of the last game, almost of them were complaining about the way France played. Hard to please is the way to describe them.














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