The Wallabies come to Paris where a bedraggled French team have their backs against the wall.
Photos by our man in Paris, Tim Anger
First Half
Thirty seconds into the match and Rob Simmons comes within a small knock on of scoring from a charge down. However, two minutes into the match and it’s clear a feisty France has turned up.
An outrageous penalty for holding on from Owens gives France territory. France follow with a beautifully executed cross kick to Huget from Lopez, which puts France on the Wallabies try line. Horwill spills the ball in contact and a scrum later France has recycled quickly and scored through the half back – McMahon isolated in defence again, this time unfairly. 7-0 after 8 min.
An excellent counter ruck at the next kick off from Hooper pressures France into a penalty and Foley slots it. 7-3 after 9 min.
France are playing with pace and passion, Australia are dropping passes, missing tackles and line outs. France once more camp down in the Wallabies 22, drawing a penalty. 10-3 after 17 mins.
Some good recycling and powerful running pulls the Wallabies into the French half. Another penalty for holding on gives Foley a shot that he slots. 10 – 6 after 19 mins.
The French are spoiling Wallaby ruck ball and using good line speed to shut down the Wallaby attack. The Wallaby pattern is yet to click.
The Wallabies have just one play wide and the French are eating it up. Meanwhile the Wallaby wide defence is not working at all well.
A French bomb is shirked by three Wallabies. The home team regathers, recycles and Teddy Thomas the 21-year-old winger runs through more than five Wallaby tackles to score. 17-6 after 30 mins. This is starting to look ugly.
Finally it clicks for the Wallabies. A penalty to the France 22 and the Wallabies drive the maul 15 metres. Short side ball to Foley who holds the ball up before giving it to Ashley-Cooper to score. Foley hits a difficult conversion. 17-13 after 36 min.
An excellent breakout from Kuridrani puts the Wallabies on attack from a long kick off. The Wallabies’ tails are up and they work their way into the French half. A penalty for offside and it’s 17-16.
And that’s the half. From looking like a shambles for more than 30 minutes, the Wallabies have pulled a Houdini to get back within one point. The Wallabies have had 66% possession but we’re not seeing the output on the scoreboard.
Two things I want to hear in the second half: “Inside ball” from the Wallabies and “Roll away” from Nigel Owens.
Second Half
And the second half is underway, with the Channel 10 commentators slaughtering names as they go.
From the kick-off France hold up Rob Simmons and earn a turn over. It’s now become impossible to tell the difference between the French replacement centre Basteraud and prop Antonio – both roll some metres earning an offside penalty. 20-16 after 44 min.
Horne is on for Leali’ifano.
The Wallabies back three defence is clueless. A simple clearance down field becomes panic stations.
A late tackle lifting tackle from McMahon – on the edge of a dodgy – yields another penalty and Lopez slots. 23-16 after 49 min. Skelton is on.
Some pressure from the Wallabies from the kick off buys some territory and they come up with the penalty. 23-19 after 53 mins.
It’s penalties either way at scrum time. Simmons steals in the line out but a charge down on Foley puts the Wallabies back on their line. The French botch their drive and the Wallabies escape. Quade Cooper the messiah is on in the 59th minute followed by Fat Cat in the 61st.
If you wondered if last week’s scrum problems came from Skelton’s body position, an overhead of a France scrum penalty confirms it. 26-19 after 63 min.
Finally – rolling away penalty from Owens in the 65th minute! It’s gone scrappy as hell though. The Wallaby attacking structure has completely gone to pot. Hodgson, Genia and Hansen are all on with 10 to go.
A bizzarre lineout penalty gives Kockott the chance and it’s a ten point lead. 29-19 with 8 to go.
A simple hands play out wide puts Ashley-Cooper into space and he does well to get deep into the France half. It’s a yellow against France and Australia take a quick tap but Skelton knocks on in contact. The French clear to the half way.
The French are now scrambling and Folau makes a clean break. The Wallabies go deep into the French half. Folay takes the ball again flat, offloads to Cooper who then offloads to Simmons who stumbles over the line. Converted. 29-26 in the 77th minute.
Australia are hot on attack making yards with every run. 10 metres out from the line with a minute to go and Alexander knocks on in contact. There’s a french phrase for this – déjà vu.
The match finishes somewhat bizarrely with a French scrum 10 metres out. It collapses once and on the re-set Kockott refuses to feed. Owens has a brain freeze for several seconds before ordering the ball in. The scrum wheels ninety and Genia comes back behind the ball, for which Owens penalises him, happy for the French win – 29-26 FULL TIME.
Despite the Wallaby attack largely going backwards and the defence a shambles in the back three, somehow they managed to stay in touch throughout the match, thanks in no small way to another 100% kicking display from Bernard Foley. This looks a lot like the 2013 Waratahs, who like the Wallabies of 2014, were pegged mid-table.
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The Game Changer
Three points down, ten metres out, red hot on attack, an extra man on the field, one minute to go – and Ben Alexander knocks on.
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The G&GR MOTM
You’d have to go with the official MOTM in Thierry Dusautoir. He was massive in defence and got away with as much as Nigel Owens would let him.
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Players to watch
There was a lot of crap in the Wallabies’ play and it was spread relatively evenly. Hooper ran and tackled hard, Kuridrani was immense considering his double marking all match. Folau picked up at the end, but has become a high ball liability. Genia and Cooper looked sharp with their 10 minutes.
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The Details
Crowd: A fair few
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]France: 29
Tries: Tillous-Borde (8min), Thomas (29min)
Conv: Lopez 2/2 (100%)
Pens: Lopez 4/5 (80%), Kockott 1/1 (100%)
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[one_half last=”yes”]Wallabies: 26
Tries: Ashley-Cooper (35min), Simmons (77min)
Conversions: Foley 2/2 (100%)
Penalties: Foley 4/4 (100%)
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Cards & citings
One frog at the end.
