Bulldozer: Louis Picamoles
Related links
Teams
Also see
France exacted revenge for the humiliation at the hands of the Wallabies two years ago with a dominant 33-6 victory at the Stade de France on Saturday.
The result brings an end to Australia's five-game winning streak against les Bleus and puts France in pole position in the chase for the all-important fourth place in the world rankings ahead of the World Cup pool draw next month.
France led 13-6 at the end of a scrappy first half highlighted by the home side's hard work on defence and their dominance at scrum time.
Indeed, Sekope Kepu was being worked over by Test debutant Yannick Forestier and it was off the back of an attacking scrum that French number eight Louis Picamoles could break to score the only try of the opening 40 minutes.
Fred Michalak set up Wesley Fofana for France's second try midway through the second half before the French scrum earned a penalty try - despite having changed their entire front row - as the Wallabies were held scoreless in the second half.
Michalak and Mike Harris traded early penalties as both sides look to move the ball around but failed to execute with any precision.
There were ominous signs for Australia as referee Nigel Owens awarded a series of penalties against the retreating Wallaby scrum five metres from their own line. Picamoles made sure the pressure told as he jogged over untouched.
Michalak landed the conversion to cap a solid start for les Bleus but Harris could cut the deficit at 10-6 after the French were caught offside to close the opening quarter.
With half time looming large, Michalak punished Kepu for not rolling away with a penalty and then landed a sucker-punch drop to give the hosts a 10-point lead at the interval.
Michalak was at the origin of France's second try as he stepped past Kurtley Beale to burst clear up the centre of the field before finding Wesley Fofana up in support for an easy finish.
Philippe Saint-André sent on the Clermont front row around the hour mark and it only served to augment to French ascendency at scrum time and the penalty try on 64 minutes came as no surprise.
Rob Simmons was extremely lucky not to get his marching orders for a tip tackle on Yannick Nyanga because none of the three officials could see the number on his back.
Australia came literally within inches of getting a try back but Morgan Parra did sterling work to get under the ball and hold it up.
Parra landed a final penalty to rub salt into the Wallabies' wounds, sending them to Twickenham with plenty to think about.
Man of the match: Michalak deserves a mention for his 15-point haul and try-creating break but we'll go with Louis Picamoles who was simply phenomenal with ball in hand. He went forward in every contact situation.
Moment of the match: The result had probably already been sealed for France by Fofana's try but the penalty try told a story itself and summed up a woeful night for the Wallaby front row.
Villain of the match: Rob Simmons for his (unpunished) spear tackle and the match officials for failing to take note of his number.
The scorers:
For France:
Tries: Picamoles, Fofana, Penalty try
Cons: Michalak 3
Pens: Michalak 2, Parra
Drop: Michalak
For Australia:
Pens: Harris 2
France: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Wesley Fofana, 13 Florian Fritz , 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Vincent Clerc, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Jocelino Suta, 4 Pascal Papé (c), 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Yannick Forestier.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Vincent Debaty, 19 Sébastien Vahaamahina, 20 Damien Chouly, 21 Morgan Parra, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Yoann Huget.
Australia: 15 Mike Harris, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Ben Tapuai, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Dave Dennis, 5 Nathan Sharpe (captain), 4 Kane Douglas, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 James Slipper, 18 Paddy Ryan, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 Radike Samo, 21 Liam Gill, 22 Brett Sheehan, 23 Berrick Barnes.
Venue: Stade de France, Paris
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: John Lacey (Ireland), Neil Paterson (Scotland)
Television match official: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Comments
Ramage says...
Well well well from riches to rags in one game. The Aussie pack was diabolical and weak the backline confused and lacking in ability. One only had to note the difference Barnes made, as s15rules quite rightly noted, when he made an appearnace. One thing for sure when they meet England they had better be sure their props show some grit or they will be done over like a dog's dinner.
I see georgesmith is bax]ck to his best throwing insults at Deans Sharpe and other selected players he hates. Did you see one of his gloden boys Simmons on the field for less than one minute and commit an act of foul play which will probably get him, Costa, not one but a two week ban. Talking about blind officials was it the Scot or the Irish assistant who missed the blatent obstruction and jersey pulling when France scored their try. One could also say that Picomoles pushing Machenaud, who was in front of him, technically put him accidentally offside as he got an advantage from it.
Unfortunately for Australia, France clicked and the way Michelak stepped Beale and then made a perfect pass at the right moment which lead to a try was magnifique. Congratulations France you deserved your win you were tecnically better showed more passion and flair.
@Toulousain whinging is whinging whether it is in the NH or SH however i understand where you are coming from as Trinuts always claims Australians don't whinge so Toulousain we need to invent a new word down here to replace whinging which is noot the word whinging but means whinging when there is no possible way you can whinge.
There is no doubt that Genia is missed he is a class player. The distance between he and Phipps is similar to the distance from Paris to Hobart. The less said about Phipps the better, as he is no International Player. He and the pros need to step up or they will be beaten again by England.
Posted 08:42 11th November 2012
latin says...
so all 3 our teams won! YAYYYYYYYYY
Posted 08:33 11th November 2012
latin says...
i am fromm SH and delighted France won, After the Pumas, Boks, then france is our favorite here in South America and i think i speak for a lot of my fellow south americans................
Posted 08:32 11th November 2012
Waz4before says...
Interviewed on Australian TV this week Deans stated very explicitly that the Oz scrum was fixed and earning respect .... Hmmm
Posted 08:29 11th November 2012
martinmarais78 says...
TRINUTS!!!! ENJOY!!!!
Posted 08:18 11th November 2012
vaizpatu2011 says...
still think the rugby championship teams are better than the 6 nation teams? why whenever the aussies lost they claim it is a second string team?
Posted 07:43 11th November 2012
bigb6969 says...
France mos def dominated the game. But that penalty try was just rubbish decision. The Aussie prop got back off the ground and France did not push straight, they should have been penalised for boring in.
I agree with TV adict on the ratings (give or take 1/100th !) but notice Wales drop to 80.59 (stay 6th), Argentina jump to 80.29, Argies up to 7th from eight. If they had won by one more point they would have surpassed Wales.
Tomorrow Scotland cannot lose anything because the are more than 10 ranking pts behind NZ. A win would put Scotland to 7th , Scots win by 8 and they would jump to 6th. But I would not count on it
Posted 07:43 11th November 2012
Voice says...
This has been on the cards for most of the year and I picked France for the win although not by that margin. They Aussies are going to call for Dean's head, again but the players are not exactly covering themselves with glory. Some serious problems in Wallaby rugby at the moment and the lack of depth starting to show.
Posted 06:14 11th November 2012
cuw3100 says...
LOL it seems OZ are the French in the SH :) one good match followed by 3 absolute horrs.
No doubt they are missing all the injured players. Always a pity when the best are not playing in internationals.
Modern RU is such a demanding sport and needs a high level of player management.
NZ seem to have realized this going by the "mid - week team" selected to play today.
Now if only the S15 went back to S12 and reduced the burden on OZ talent (and also SA for that matter), we as fans may see more very good players in test matches.
Posted 04:35 11th November 2012
MacTavish says...
The IRB Rankings dont win matches. Aussie are no where near the second best team on the planet.
Posted 03:59 11th November 2012
jmanngod says...
This was expected. The Wallabies lack depth and just bringing in 2nd rate Kiwis won't help. Still, their youth will learn from this and still look good to be a force with their top 15 in 2 or 3 years.
Posted 03:20 11th November 2012
nzmaoriboy says...
Awesome result! Not buying into this "B" team business..rugby' a simple game 15 vs 15! win/lose..the mantra "you are only as good as your bench" holds true and transcends codes. Australia I think may have been lulled by there recent good performance against an admittedly poor NZ team (poor through good pressure by Oz i must add)..A truer measure of a teams ability is consistency & knack of winning those close and hard rugby encounters. France were just up for it as the a want to do on occasion! are they great? no way..but they will be if they can string more performances like this regularly.
Posted 03:04 11th November 2012
startledwombat says...
The comments thread in the Match Preview for this game seemed to be discussing a team quite different to the one that actually showed up in Paris. Here's the link for those who want to see the rugby equivalent of the pollsters picking a Romney win:
http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_8236949,00.html
Hugely impressed by the French strength, combinations, defensive depth and ability to tackle. France made 209 tackles! And there were 11 scrums. Lovely!
Watching Michalak set up Fofana's try from his own 22 reminded me of the All Blacks approach: "have a go, the tryline's only 75 paces away".
Posted 02:53 11th November 2012
Trinats2 says...
Merde! Outplayed in every area. Well done France.
Posted 02:02 11th November 2012
Uglea says...
Only one disagreement with the write up, frances first try was due to their loosie holding the Wobblies loosie which allowed the French player a stroll to the try line. It almost seems the Wobblies try and play below par at times allowing othe teams dominance. I tip the poms to do the same as the French.
Posted 01:43 11th November 2012
passtheball says...
Its France, next week it will be 6 - 33 against them! Aus lack of depth is really showing though and Dean's may pay for that but there is no one ready to replace him unless they go Jake White?
Posted 01:13 11th November 2012
Ferdie says...
was it really the Qantas Wallabies worst performance of the year?
Sydney Morning Herald even has a poll. Seems this game is a winner after all!
What was the worst Wallabies performance in 2012?
Australia 6 Scotland 9 in Newcastle 32%
New Zealand 22 Australia 0 in Auckand 25%
South Africa 31 Australia 8 in Pretoria 4%
France 33 Australia 6 in Paris 39%
Posted 01:11 11th November 2012
5Lock4ward says...
If only Lievremont had been smart enough to have Michalak in his squad about 14 months ago...
Posted 01:01 11th November 2012
JamieTheProp says...
And, if anything, the England scrum is even better than the French one - I can't wait for next week!
Posted 00:50 11th November 2012
three6three6 says...
Well done France.... But to bury the Wallabies on the scoreboard is a fantastic achievement.
England now have a serious dilemma.... should they bring Sheridan back as their best scrummaging loose head prop.... if they do can he perform the hat trick? [i.e. by destroying the Australian scrummage for the third time in his career]
Should Deans go now? No there are still 800,000 reasons for him to continue.... after all, he was not the man pushing in the front row or throwing out those shoddy passes or missing those tackles.
The result last time in Paris (2010) covered up a multitude of bad performances by the Wallaby forwards. Finally a result redresses the balance a little.
Posted 00:19 11th November 2012