France on Friday overpowered Italy 34-17 to end an eight-game winless streak and claim their first victory in this year’s Six Nations Championship.
Les Bleus, who had not won a game since beating Wales in the same competition in March last year, prevailed thanks to tries from Paul Gabrillagues, Hugo Bonneval and Mathieu Bastareaud.
Scrumhalf Maxime Machenaud added five penalties and a conversion while replacement Francois Trinh-Duc added another conversion.
Italy scored a first-half penalty try, while Tommaso Allan’s penalty and Matteo Minozzi’s late try, converted by Carlo Canna, gave the scoreline a touch of gloss for the visitors.
“It was a tough game for us, but I think the performance was not too bad,” Italy No. 8 Sergio Parisse said. “I think our defense was much better than the first two games. Just keep going, keep working. It’s difficult when you lose, but we have another two games to possibly get a win.”
France, who snatched their first win under new coach Jacques Brunel, have six points, three behind leaders Ireland and England who have played one game fewer.
Italy remain pointless at the bottom of the table.
France take on England on March 10, while Italy travel to Wales a day later.
The hosts were without several players who were dropped after going out late at night following France’s 32-26 defeat by Scotland, which had followed a 15-13 loss to Ireland in their opening game.
Against Italy their pack dominated early on and they were quickly rewarded with Gabrillagues’s try, before the visitors fought back and took the lead five minutes later with a pack-driven penalty try.
However, France enjoyed the bulk of the possession and Machenaud’s first penalty on the half-hour mark put them in front again. The scrumhalf then added another to give Les Bleus a four-point lead at halftime.
France, with an inspired Bastareaud at center, were not clinical enough and continued to appear nervous.
Machenaud slotted another penalty, but it was only after a handling error had cost France a try and the Azzurri stayed in the hunt thanks to Allan’s penalty 10 minutes into the second half.
France eventually scored again after another foray by Bastareaud, whose offload allowed Bonneval to touch down with Machenaud adding the extras to put the hosts 11 points ahead.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier