Argentina, who lost their two match series with Scotland recently, managed to achieve their best ever result against France, as they beat them convincingly 41-13 in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
The Pumas bounced back from the disappointment of the losses to Scotland by hammering France by scoring four tries to one, with flyhalf and captain Felipe Contepomi scoring two of the four and kicking three conversions and five penalties.
The dynamic Toulon back ended the match with a personal haul of 31 points of France ended their tour with another heavy defeat, following on from their 42-17 loss to South Africa in Cape Town a few weeks ago.
“It’s desolation,” said stunned France coach Marc Lievremont. “I don’t know how we could sink so badly in these few weeks, to suffer two points records in South Africa and now here in Argentina. I expected tough matches, but these defeats are ridiculous. It was a nightmare.”
It was Argentinas highest ever score and biggest winning margin against France, something that French captain Thierry Dusautoir was struggling to accept.
“When you concede 40 points in two successive Tests, there isn’t a lot to say. We can find 50 excuses, but today we came up against a team who were just much stronger than us. We were dominated in all areas and this was our level sadly today,” he said.
“For a team that has ambitions to be world champions next year, it’s going to be difficult to pick ourselves up from this.”
There were some brilliant tries scored by the home side, so credit must go to them, but this result will surprise many. Do France have serious problems all of a sudden, or have the players simply lost interest at the end of their season?
Time:
06:06
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