Try! Julien Pierre got the ball rolling
France were given a scare by Japan in their World Cup opener on Saturday but managed to get the job done with a 47-21 win at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland.
A bonus point means that les Bleus move level with New Zealand at the top of Pool A, but it was far from plain sailing as the Japanese made a mockery of many of the bookies' predictions.
A virtuoso performance from Japanese fly-half James Arlidge saw him score all his team's points in an entertaining game highlighted by the Brave Blossoms' fighting spirit.
The result looked done and dusted early on as France made the expected strong start. But as complacency set in and Japan continued to fight, the underdogs made an incredible comeback.
After cruising to a 20-3 lead inside the first 30 minutes, France found themselves under huge pressure at 25-21 on the hour mark.
A late revival however saw the French restore order, finishing the game with six tries to Japan's two.
The first half-an-hour went perfectly to script: The Japanese scrum was slaughtered and their defence out wide was found wanting.
Three tries - from lock Julien Pierre, fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc and wing Vincent Clerc - gave France a 23-11 lead at half-time. Arlidge's replied with a try of his own and two penalties.
It took France 27 minutes to score their first points of the second half - although they were unlucky to be denied a try on two occasions by the TMO, who adjudged the ball to have been held up - but scored 22 unanswered points in the last ten minutes.
Dragons fly-half Arlidge got Japan on the board with his second penalty attempt and was handed a stroke of good fortune when his attempted grubber, charged down by Trinh-Duc, rebound into his hands to dash over, although he missed the conversion.
France hit back with a lovely try from deadly finisher Clerc. Arlidge then landed his second penalty on half-time to keep Japan in touch.
Imanol Harinordoquy and Lionel Nallet were both denied tries soon after the restart as the Japanese managed to get body parts under the ball in-goal.
The Cherry Blossoms then began to strike. After a series of phases - prompted by the high tempo play of scrum-half Fumiaki Tanaka - Arlidge spotted the gap and broke through two tackles to score. He also added the conversion to cut the deficit to 25-18.
France suddenly seemed all at sea and lost all shape. However they were given some breathing space by a Yachvili penalty with 12 minutes left before veteran lock Nallet powered over to make the game safe.
And in the dying minutes lock Pascal Papé added the finishing touch after a brilliant move that started in the French 22, while replacement Parra scored in the corner.
Man of the match: We don't often go for a player from the losing team, but James Arlidge deserves the gong. His second try was sensational and gave his team hope of causing an upset.
Moment of the match: France showed what they are capable off when Cedric Heymans made a beautiful offload to Aurélien Rougerie, who sent it wide for Vincent Clerc's try. It gave France a 25-8 lead...Japan were never going to be able to come back from there.
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff to report.
The scorers:
For France:
Tries: Pierre, Trinh-Duc, Clerc, Nallet, Papé, Parra
Cons: Yachvili 4
Pens: Yachvili 3
For Japan:
Tries: Arlidge 2
Cons: Arlidge
Pens: Arlidge 3
France: 15 Cedric Heymans, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Fabrice Estebanez, 11 Maxime Médard, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Raphael Lakafia, 7 Imanol Harinordoquy, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Julien Pierre, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Julien Bonnaire, 19 Pascal Papé, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 David Skrela, 22 David Marty
Japan: 15 Shaun Webb, 14 Kosuke Endo, 13 Koji Taira, 12 Ryan Nicholas, 11 Hirotoki Onozawa, 10 James Arlidge, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Ryukoliniasi Holani, 7 Michael Leitch, 6 Takashi Kikutani (c), 5 Toshizumi Kitagawa, 4 Luke Thompson, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Hisateru Hirashima.
Replacements: 16 Yusuke Aoki, 17 Nozomu Fujita, 18 Hitoshi Ono, 19 Itaru Taniguchi, 20 Atsushi Hiwasa, 21 Murray Williams, 22 Alisi Tupuailai.
Venue: North Harbour Stadium, Albany
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Alain Rolland (Ireland)), Stuart Terheege (England)
TMO: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Comments
Rosbif says...
@ dylster. no worries. looking fwd to the AB game already. shld be a cracker. dagg vs heymans. rougerie vs nonu. mccaw vs dusautoir. a massive front 5 battle. let's hope no-one gets injured or cited, and the ref has a good day. then hopefully we meet again in the final :)
Posted 11:37 13th September 2011
dylster says...
@ Rosbif
thanks mate, guess Im a little bit tired of some posters (thankfully a minority) having a go at anything kiwi!
So your French ay? Good luck for the rest of the tournament (except the kiwi game) - i love the way the French play - better than some other strong teams that are a lot less entertaining.
Posted 10:29 13th September 2011
Rosbif says...
@ dylster. apologies. you're right. we haved unfairly placed the brouhaha surrounding the Eng black shirts at your door when 1) your comment was about Fra playing in white, 2) you're not (presumably?) working in the kit/marketing dept of the ABs, 3) you're aren't (presumably?) a journo writing for the NZ herald....
(For the record, Fra change strip has been white for a number of years. But usually with either blue shorts and/or red socks. All white was a bit new to me too...)
Re the kiwibashing. Think most of that is coming from across the tasman, no? We French are used to copping a lot from the anglo-saxon teams, refs, fans, tv pundits, armchair commentators etc etc. I'd like to think we're fairly quiet as a nation, and love our rugby...hopefully that comes across in the next 6 weeks.
But, given we're playing you pretty soon, I guess we couldn't resist the temptation to have a wee dig :)
Posted 09:45 13th September 2011
dylster says...
@ benski
wrong yet again. It was just me that brought up the white shirts, and i speak for myself not for "all kiwis". And I didnt say anything about the white belonging to England?!
I just wanted to know why the English and French arent playing in their normal colours, for England Im guessing as their shirts are too close to the Puma shirts but why were the French playing in white?
And how is that whinging? maybe read comments properly and have a wee think before you comment next time, and the kiwibashing is getting boring too
Posted 21:20 12th September 2011
Rosbif says...
@KiwiRooster, thanks for the excellent blog re Michalak. I agree entirely with your sentiments! Having watched him play a few times on tv for natal, i have not seen him have a bad game. His team mates seem to appreciate him highly, especially terblanche who seems the heartbeat of that backline. And he must be improving his understanding of English, and of SH rule interpretations, which can only be a good preparation for the WC referees...
It seems ML believes he has several players who can play 10 if T-Duc is injured, i.e. Estebanez, Parra, Traille. But he has only two 9s. So maybe Doussain is being talked about because he can cover 9 also? Who knows?? But I agree, it would be crazy to leave Freddie out for Doussain, since Freddie can also cover 9 (albeit with the reservations you mention).
I am, however, a big fan of Wisniewski, if he's not injured. The top14 stats don't lie. He's still young (although if he were Australian he would have 30 caps by now!) with some of the insouciance of youth. And he is a relatively unknown quantity, so the other teams defence coaches would have to do a lot of video analysis. I wld like to see him on the bench to change the tempo of a game if needed, like Ben Youngs did for Eng this weekend.... Or like Freddie did vs NZ in 2007....
@benski, hehehe i like the way your humour works. seems there are indeed a few whingers in the famously quiet, stoical, and rugby-knowledgeable AB camp...
Posted 17:50 12th September 2011
dylster says...
IslandPower
thanks for bringing up that first try...surely that should have been ruled a ruck?! Thoughts people? I thought Japan were very unlucky there.
And whats going on in the NH? England wearing black and France wearing white?
Posted 09:19 11th September 2011
KiwiBiggles says...
I took my ten year old son to the game - and I think he finally learned there *is* honor in a courageous defeat (he hates losing on Saturday mornings lol). He started out cheering for France as you'd expect of a passionate young rugby fan... but by half time was cheering on The Brave Blossoms, as were we all. Then the crowd went absolutely nuts in the third quarter - every call against the Blossoms roundly booed (poor old Steve Walsh) and wild chanting of 'Nippon - Nippon' between plays... French singing... the fans were just great!
We stayed a while after full-time, and when the Sakura lined up on each sideline and bowed to their fans - pure class.
James Arlidge was player of the match at the ground (my son plays 10 so he was pretty chuffed with that) and our pick too - so good call PR! The half-back Fumiaki Tanaka was impressive too.
It's the second time we've seen France live at a test match - bien jou?rance - we always love to see Les Bleus here in EnZed.
We're loving hosting 'Bill' and France v Japan last night was an unforgettable match... best so far for mine.
Kia ora
Kiwi
Posted 00:15 11th September 2011
Rosbif says...
@moutaye, no argument from me re Yach ! I think we probably all agree his technique is poor 1) finding the ball in the ruck, 2) taking 2 steps to pass, and 3) eventually throwing a looping pass...
What I meant was that he was involved several times in open play when he showed an unexpected turn of speed. Once in the run-up to Pierre's try. And again in the first half receiving a pass from Lakafia off the base of a scrum going blind where he almost put Heymans and Clerc clear. But it doesn't change the fact his game-reading and service is slow. What's amusing is how he tries to "vary" his pace, by occasionally being VERY SLOW.... Endlessly pointing at Servat to stand wider etc, etc.. As if somehow this makes his usual slow tempo seem slightly less slow.
Hmmm. Wish we had a Ben Youngs type of player to call on. Oh, I just remembered. We do. Several in fact, as @neust pointed out. But they're all at home and we have Traille in the team instead of a 3rd scrum half....
@ editor: how many other top nations decided to take just 2 scrum halves in the squad of 30..?
@KiwiRooster. interesting observations. i only saw the game on tv so didnt get the same feeling of where the space was. With two no.9s on the field, one would hope you could spread the play quickly with two passes and find space for the quicker men.
Having just watched the game again, Fra totally lost their shape after Estebanez and then Skrela left, and lost their impetus after the Nallet and H'Doquy video ref decisions around the 50 minute mark. I think if T-Duc and Estebanez had stayed on (what other team subs their 10 so often during a game?), the Japan resurgence would have been largely snuffed out. If Nallet or H'Doquy tries awarded, the game is over at 60 mins.
@ lyhel, agree Parra galvanised the others. Dusautoir again too much the silent man.
Hopefully ML is learning lessons...
Posted 22:41 10th September 2011
moutaye says...
@Rosbif
I disagree re Yach. He was just slow as usual releasing the ball. Gave plenty of time to the opposition to re-organise themselves...
@KiwiRooster
It's not broken. It's a contusion/bruise. On the intention you're right. I still don't know what this guy is doing on the pitch. He's a good Top 14 player but never really got beyond that. I am afraid we'll have to stick with him for the duration of the competition....
Posted 19:09 10th September 2011
Rosbif says...
What a great contest! Could hardly bear to watch in the second half as Japan really upped the tempo. Their no. 9 was superb. Is there a faster team in world rugby? Watching Eng vs Arg after was like watching treacle....
From Fra perspective, happy to see Barcella and Servat survive 50-55 mins in such a quick game. Lakafia had some good carries. But I thought forwads in general were too often beaten in the contact area, hence the speed of Japan's ball. (Where were Dusautoir and H'Doquy to slow them down?). Centres and back 3 worked well too. (Fingers crossed Estebanez isnt badly injured). Even Yach had a good game i thought. Showed some speed and an eye for the gap on several occasions. Parra similarly impressive when he came on. Everyone puffing for air at the end. I guess no amount of training can replicate this type of game!! Just watchnig I had to have a rest after...
A final thought for Skrela. It's really bad luck for him. But, whisper it, it might not be such bad news for Fra. Anyone got Wisniewski's phone number?
Posted 15:23 10th September 2011
hayj05 says...
Yea Gordan Bray's an awesome commentator. Miss having him.
Posted 13:58 10th September 2011
neust says...
Trinat would deserve to play in French team. His clown teamates would be so happy to have such a killing partner !
To be serious, the French had a hawfull and pathethic game. While japanese n°9 was animating so well and fast, ugly Yachvili was waiting, as usualy, opponents replacement. Mauls were privilegated instead of any other option in first half. Why insist when you can't drive mauls efficiently ? Our captain & n°9 made bad choices. As did poor Skrela. Where are Dupuy, Doussain, Tillous-Bordes, J. Tomas, all so better than slow Yach & crying Parra ? Where is Wisniewski ? Where are Codorniou & Sella ? probably not in our backs' genes. As a french rugbyman, je suis désespéré... As a game watcher, I was stagged by Japanese's cohesion and determination. So, bravo to them.
Posted 13:53 10th September 2011
yelloj321 says...
round of applause for Fumiaki Tanaka. Incredible performance.
Posted 13:34 10th September 2011
trappa says...
Really enjoyable game...in fact, so were all the pool matches involving 'minnows'. Just wish the poms would watch replays and learn how to run with the ball...
Posted 12:42 10th September 2011
tahi says...
Trinats
Posted 12:31 10th September 2011
Ramage says...
Reado ignore the rantings of trinuts hes a typical convict just trying to stir the pot Forget his rantings he's just not worth it.. Great to hear some decent
commentaries from the RWC without Kearns and Martin commentating. They too are another group of convicts who open their mouths and let their teeth rattle. Although, to be fair, good to hear Gordon Bray commentating he's probably forgotten more than Kearns and Martin have ever known. Looks like the volume will be turned down tomorrow during the Italy game.
Posted 11:59 10th September 2011
KiwiLad says...
Quite possibly Japanese rugbys finest hour....
Well done Japan..
Posted 11:39 10th September 2011
hayj05 says...
France only put points on at the end because Japan overcommited on attack, they were going all out for the win. It was great to see.
Posted 11:35 10th September 2011
kahui says...
Aus will lose 2 ireland
Posted 11:28 10th September 2011
leinsterblue says...
absolutely stonking game of rugby...I felt that the final score somewhat flattered France - sheer power and the extra step in class finally overwhelmed the Japanese
Posted 10:31 10th September 2011