Wallabies v France: Five takeaways as Les Bleus punish Australia’s ‘sins’ in utterly dominant second half showing
France full-back Matthieu Jalibert and Wallabies flanker Fraser McReight (inset).
Following France’s 42-26 victory over Australia at a sold-out Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, here are our five takeaways from a night when Les Bleus ended more than half a century of Brisbane pain with their highest ever score against the Wallabies on Australian soil.
The top line
Both sides arrived in Brisbane nursing two-point wounds from round one of the Nations Championship, and for 40 minutes it was the hosts who looked the more likely to heal theirs. But it was France who struck first inside three minutes, Emmanuel Meafou announcing his homecoming by hauling three defenders over the line, and Romain Ntamack’s perfectly weighted grubber sent debutant Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang over soon after. Australia‘s reply was built entirely on fundamentals; Brandon Paenga-Amosa finished a clever lineout trick play, Fraser McReight tapped and drove over from a scrum free-kick with Meafou in the bin, then powered over again from a rolling maul, and at half-time the Wallabies led 21-12 in front of more than 52,000. It all looked one way traffic for the hosts and a great send off for Joe Schmidt’s penultimate game.
But then, the second half belonged utterly to France, who won it 30-5 once their discipline settled and, critically, when they found a way to work Matthieu Jalibert into the game. Grandidier-Nkanang grabbed his second, Ntamack conjured a brilliant solo score, the bench drove two more through the outstanding Florian Verhaeghe and Theo Attissogbe, and Maxime Lucu’s boot completed a 42-point statement. France had not won in Brisbane since 1972 as they finally ended the drought with a record.
A second-half statement
Three levers turned this match in Les Bleus’ favour, and it was Fabien Galthie‘s intellect that pulled them all at half-time.
The first was sorting their discipline; a first half that produced Meafou’s yellow card, a formal team warning from Karl Dickson and a maul penalty for sealing off gave way to 40 minutes of near-total control. The second was usage of assets; naming Jalibert at full-back answered nothing on its own, and the first half proved it, with Tom Wright twice raking 50/22s into the space the two-playmaker structure left unguarded.
But an experiment of this nature is decided by how you use the man, not whether he’s there or not, and after the break France deliberately played through him, getting him into the match between 12 and 13. Jalibert made the break that should have brought a try, kicked the assist for Grandidier-Nkanang’s second, and orchestrated the width-to-width sequence that ran Australia out of defenders for the Verhaeghe score. He finished with 84 metres gained, 13 carries and four defenders beaten from full-back.
The third lever was defence, a work in progress since Shaun Edwards departed. France delivered a shutout from the 33rd minute until a consolation two minutes from time, whilst at the other end they cut 12 line breaks to Australia’s five from just 43 per cent possession. Ntamack supplied the moment of the night, spotting a gassed James Slipper and a biting Dylan Pietsch before scorching blind off Lucu’s pass, and Lucu himself purred through the closing quarter, taking the sensible three at 21-15 and again at the death.
The cost of the yellows
Both sin-binnings were seriously expensive, and between them they decided the Test. Meafou’s shoulder made contact with Rob Valetini’s head in the 24th minute, and the bunker kept it yellow on the grounds that much of the force was absorbed by shoulder and ball, a defensible grading on the mechanics and a distinguishable one from the morning’s Niccolo Cannone red in Wellington. The cost was still ruinous: Australia scored 14 points in his absence, McReight’s tap try coming directly from the position the offence conceded, and the maul score following with France’s wall 150 kilograms lighter.
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Wright’s card was worse, a seal-off on his own line around the 50-minute mark with the game at 21-20, and France harvested 17 points in the 10 minutes that followed. Thirty-one points were scored across 20 sin-bin minutes in a match decided by 16, and in Test rugby of this quality, playing a man light is no longer survivable.
McReight fights a lone battle
For an hour, Australia’s plan was working because the basics were immaculate: a scrum that maintained its 100 per cent record across the Rugby Championship and Nations Championship, a maul that scored, Wright’s territorial boot, and above all Fraser McReight. The openside flanker produced two tries, a match-high 19 tackles from the gold shirts, 11 carries, four defenders beaten and two breakdown steals, at one point ripping the ball clean from Lenni Nouchi’s grasp. His field day was possible because France still lack a genuine jackal threat, and the statistic that proves it is stark: Les Bleus won one turnover all night, and it came from centre Yoram Moefana rather than any of their back row. Against elite breakdown sides, that remains the flaw in this French squad, and Galthie has a year to find his fetcher.
Australia’s tragedy is that everything McReight and the fundamentals built was surrendered by the very sins they had avoided; Wright’s card at the line, a needless midfield offence that gifted Lucu the sealing penalty, and a second half in which 57 per cent of possession and 140 carries produced almost nothing against a reorganised French defence. Jeremy Williams, who had a high quality outing, scored close-range consolation salvaged a try bonus point, but there was little else from the Wallabies in that second period.
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Depth that changes the 2027 conversation
France did this without 11 first-choice players. No Dupont, no Ramos, no Ollivon, no Cros, no Bielle-Biarrey, and the side wearing blue (or white!) pushed the All Blacks to two points last week before producing a record score in Brisbane this week. The bench swung a Test for the second consecutive round; Killian Tixeront’s impact in the loose was immense, Maxime Lamothe ran hard, straight lines from hooker, Kalvin Gourgues made the break for the final try, and Auradou also added bulk.
Ahead of them, Nouchi topped the match with 17 carries alongside 14 tackles, Marko Gazzotti led all tacklers with 20, and Fabien Brau-Boirie grew into the contest in midfield. Attissogbe, meanwhile, was the most complete wing on either side, 14 carries for 84 metres, 13 tackles, dominance in the air and a deserved try after an earlier effort was chalked off for the finest of forward passes. Australia had McReight; France had Attissogbe.
The question this performance forces is whether this is a B side at all, or an emerging A side sorting its internal hierarchy, because Nouchi, Tixeront and Fabien Brau-Boirie all moved up the depth chart in one evening.
The table consequences are immediate; France leave with five points and top billing in the European Conference conversation, whilst Australia take a solitary bonus point from a home defeat and travel toward Italy with familiar questions in a World Cup year from a home defeat and travel toward Italy with familiar questions in a World Cup year on their own soil.