Brilliant try: Julien Malzieu
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Tournament favourites France got their 2012 Six Nations campaign off to an ideal start on Saturday with a 30-12 victory over Italy in Paris.
Philippe Saint-André's team ran four tries past their visitors for a comfortable win although the scoreboard belies the quality of the Italian performance.
Indeed, Italy dominated possession and territory in the first half but France held a 15-6 lead at the break thanks to two well-taken tries from Aurélien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu.
The scoreline was by no means a fair reflection of the first 40 minutes but Les Bleus pounced on their only two opportunities while Italy failed to finish off a number of promising build-ups.
The trend continued early in the second half as Vincent Clerc touched down for France to put victory well out of reach of their rivals from across the Alps.
The French turned the screw in the closing minutes as their performance grew in fluidity and confidence. Debutant centre Wesley Fofana added a late try to send a message across the Channel - France mean business.
The Azzurri started with plenty of positive intent and impressed with their ball retention. But France's tackling early on was just as noteworthy.
The French opened the scoring when Dimitri Yachvili slotted a penalty after a 60m break by Malzieu put the Italian defence under pressure. But the visitors domination of possession in the first quarter was rewarded when fly-half Kris Burton landed a neat drop goal to level matters.
France struck soon afterwards though when Rougerie spotted two font rowers in the Italian defensive line and ghosted between them to score.
Yachvili's extras put the hosts 10-3 in front and helped settle a few nerves after a jittery start, but a Burton penalty on the half-hour mark cut the gap to four points.
France had been struggling at scrum time but bucked the trend to produce a big shove and lay the platform for their second try. Louis Picamoles broke off the back and burst into space before finding Malzieu on his outside. The Clermont winger still had plenty to do but beat five defenders to find his way over after a brilliant run to give Les Bleus a comfortable advantage at the break.
Burton and Yachvili traded penalties early in the second period as Italy continued to do most of playing while France continued to profit from every opportunity offered them.
The wind was taken out of Italy's sails in the 54th minute when Vincent Clerc grabbed a third try for France after François Trinh-Duc had chipped ahead before the fly-half and Rougerie displayed some good football skills to give their wing an easy run-in.
Fofana rubbed salt into the Italian wounds as he finished off for try number four at the end of big overlap to cap France's best period of the game.
Italy will head home well beaten but Jacques Brunel will take plenty of positives from an encouraging performance.
Man of the match: Louis Picamoles justified the new French staff's confidence in him with impressive display but we agree with the official gong for Julien Malzieu, who looked a dangerous whenever the ball found it's way to his wing.
Moment of the match: The jury was unanimous here - Julien Malzieu's try just before half-time will go down as a candidate for Try of the Year. Not only was it a fantastic solo effort from the big wing (and Louis Picamoles's work to create it was equally good) but it gave France an 11-point lead and dented the visitors' morale.
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff to report.
The scorers:
For France:
Tries: Rougerie, Malzieu, Clerc, Fofana
Cons: Yachvili 2
Pens: Yachvili 2
For Italy:
Pens: Burton 2, Botes
Drop: Burton
Yellow card: Geldenhuys (Italy - 70th min - pulling maul down)
France: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurelien Rougerie, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Julien Malzieu, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Vincent Debaty.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Yoann Maestri, 19 Imanol Harinordoquy, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Maxime Mermoz.
Italy:15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (c) 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Quintin Geldenhuys, 4 Cornelius van Zyl, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Lorenzo Cittadini, 18 Marco Bortolami, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Fabio Semenzato, 21 Tobias Botes, 22 Gonzalo Canale.
Venue: Stade de France, St. Denis (Paris)
Referee: Nigel Owens
Comments
Rosbif says...
Agreed. North the bigger impact. I guess PR cheated anyway and found a way to have both in the team :-)
Posted 15:05 06th February 2012
ThinkingGame says...
Not really. I think we know North had the bigger impact against the better opposition. He also had to put on a better defensive show, came in and snuffed out O'Connell's charge into the 22, and killed a 3 man overlap. His only mistake was leaving too much to do to get to Bowe for his try, but in coming in he forced Ireland away from the posts. That jink, smash through McFadden and flick offload out of the back of the hand was worth a team of the week slot all by itself.
Posted 13:00 06th February 2012
Rosbif says...
@ThinkingGame and @bambo. North vs Malzieu for the 11 shirt in PR's team of the week. Tough call !!
Posted 11:43 06th February 2012
ThinkingGame says...
"North is a beautiful monster."
Someone's growing a man crush.
France are in such a great place. Hungry support runners, class all over, huge defence, and plenty of life in their best players. Won this in 2nd gear, and should win the tournament. Maybe not easily, but comfortably. As for Italy, a great start under a new coach. Looked far more integrated and balanced as a side, got to feel their inadequacies in fitness and concentration which at this stage can only be good for them, and were beaten but not humiliated by losing RWC finalists, away from home.
Posted 10:50 06th February 2012
Rosbif says...
@justice_4_all. that's a deal :-) CJ is a bit like what they say about capitalism - "it's the worst system we've got, apart from all the other systems."
If anyone doubts this, just imagine Wayne Barnes, or Bryce or Clancy or Pearson or Rolland in charge of that final. Hardly bears thinking about!
CJ was and is one of the best around. No deliberate bias or rigging imo. Just the natural pressure of being at eden park with thousands of kiwis shouting at you. And trying to do the best you can. And not wanting a "decision" to gift one side the game. (...And wanting to get out of the stadium alive hehehe)
Andre Watson got similarly pilloried in 03 for keeping the final close. But he was still my favourite ref at the time. If not him, who else?
Who would want to ref a final???????
Posted 09:52 06th February 2012
Carpelone says...
Justice_4_all
I agree about your comment on Rougerie. Even though McCaw well passed the limit, a word of apology was needed from him. He is a captain and a senior member of one of the most important team in world rugby, and he is setting the examples for kids and younger players.
As far as Joubert is concerned, I now think that he did not expect such a close game, and, with the clock ticking, was more and more difficult to take a decision against the ABs.
Posted 09:52 06th February 2012
kybone says...
paddy91317 Well well well my friend. Still so confident ( or arrogant) about Irelands chances this year!? I don't usually revel in a teams defeat, and i have nothing against the Irish team, but after all the cocky slf loving comments from Irish fans on hear, i was delighted to see your tournament go up in flames after the first game! lol. I mean there's confidence but then there's sheer arrogance. The Irish contingent on hear have shown the latter, and now they're all sat wiping the egg from their faces.
Posted 08:45 06th February 2012
praetorian says...
The news for us Italy is that we are finally there. Italy matched France in the main aspects of the game: attack, defence, front and back row, possession, kicking, touche...
Given that they are the strongest of the 6N, our level of play is now good enough for this tournament. This must give the team confidence but must be confirmed against England.
Now Italy must improve mentally. We always allow a stupid try towards the end of the first half, let's switch to conservative play in the last minutes. And develop a real will to cross the try line. It looks like our players hesitate when they are in the last ten meters.
Posted 18:35 05th February 2012
crunchfit says...
@bluelion
Doesn't seem to be much of a contingent. Just paddy91317... The performance didn't make me optimistic anyway. I'm more concerned about our own performance that's to come for the moment anyway.
Posted 12:03 05th February 2012
carpelone says...
Crunchfit
The point I would like to make is that we need to have consistent and accurate refereeing, I thought the decision of Nigel Owens was a bit too lazy and obvious.
As far as Ireland are concerned, my opinion is that the weak point last year in the 6N was the discipline and my opinion is that this derives mainly from the attitude of Munstermen (which I found way too much cynical). I do not see the same attitude in Leinstermen and Ulstermen (did not have any chance to watch Connacht). Playing more rugby instead of destroying would benefit Ireland I think.
I look forward to the match this afternoon, IRE-WAL was the best match in the RWC 2011, not only because of Wales. If only Sexton had played.....
Hope you have a good one later today.
Posted 11:12 05th February 2012
RobinMasters says...
Acknowledgement to both teams for this good game; Sergio Parisse was everywhere. I have nothing against Palisson or Estebanez but Malzieu and Fofana just don't play in the same league...
Posted 10:34 05th February 2012
paddy91317 says...
I did was we'll see how Ireland play first France were clinical yes but did they show any of that French flair that scares the crap out of everybody even the allblacks I thought France won that game from being very structured and using basic hands im not swing Ireland will go to Paris thinking they will win easy but it should take more than structure and simple hands to break us down. If you want fighting talk well our provinces have shown these Irish players can be very clinical too but all being said Ireland have had lets say 40 min of a good performance in Paris in the last 10 year's so again we'll know more after we beat wales :-D
Posted 04:38 05th February 2012
MunsterRedArmy says...
Cant wait for Fra:Ire game! Best two NH nations clash and I hope we get to see a thrilling match full of tries. GWAN IRELAND!
Posted 23:55 04th February 2012
hayj05 says...
France were their usual dominant self in Europe but I was really impressed to see some Italian progress, With the foward pack they have they should really be focussing on improving that backline & it looks like they are, I even saw some draw & passes which are so.. so.... rare for them for such a simple skill. If they conjure up a half decent backline you'll start to see them win a lot more games. Anyone traveling to Stadio Olympico is going to have their hands full I think.
Posted 23:22 04th February 2012
crunchfit says...
Italy look much more structured. They still don't have a 10 or much cutting edge though. Masi looked like he could offer this but he didn't get that much ball in useful positions. They produced wave after wave of attack, but France didn't seem too troubled.
@carpelone
I don't understand the grudge you have with Ireland and especially O'Connell. I mean, they haven't even played this year and you're already having a go. You should probably let the chip on your shoulder go. It's unpleasant to hear you whining about the same thing every 6N match year after year, particularly when there isn't anything to complain about.
Posted 22:06 04th February 2012
kije says...
After todays matches I think Italy can certainly target the England game.
Posted 20:36 04th February 2012
carpelone says...
Malzieu's performance makes Lievremont look stupid.
The difference was the ability to clinically finish off opportunities (including of heels and knees in the occasion of the third try).
Good performance from Nigel Owen too, although too harsh with Geldenhuys with the yellow. If this is the standard, I wonder how many times Paul O' Connel should be sin binned. He always collapses maul professionally. Owen riuned the last ten minutes of the game.
Italy could be a major threat to England next week.
Posted 19:49 04th February 2012
golden_statenba says...
France did look good. Rusty but good.
If they play to there full potential they will destroy the other teams in this competition. And many other intonational teams.
Has an AB supporter a little nervous
Well played to both teams
Posted 19:02 04th February 2012
Rosbif says...
@paddy91317. brave words indeed! i might respectfully suggest ireland look 1 game at a time.
by the way, what was it about France's performance today that you thought was not scary?
yes, several poor kick-offs, some lost line-outs, lack of precision in scrum and rolling maul in first half....but all that stuff is fixable with a little time together methinks... meanwhile, fra made 114 out of 119 tackles, hardly had the ball for the first half but gave almost nothing away discipline-wise (only 7 pens in whole game), and converted line-breaks into tries with the look of a side that was playing within itself. even debaty survived pretty well. 3 scrums against the head, including the crucial scrum in lead up to malzieu try, aint so bad?
i'd rather be sitting in the club house with no injuries, 4 tries to nil, an extra day's rest and prep time, and a team starting to find some rhythm.
still. best of luck tmw. see you next w/e. will be a massive game for sure :-)
Posted 19:02 04th February 2012
froggy73 says...
@Paddy: We always like teams coming to us when they are not worried, especially Ireland :)
Posted 18:38 04th February 2012