France took a further step toward claiming the Six Nations championship on Friday when they survived another stirring Wales fightback to secure a 26-20 victory that made it three wins out of three.
Intercept tries by Alexis Palisson and Francois Trinh-Duc, plus two Morgan Parra penalties gave France a commanding 20-0 halftime lead at the Millennium Stadium.
Wales got back to 20-13 with 20 minutes left via the boot of Stephen Jones and a Leigh Halfpenny try, but two penalties by France’s replacement flyhalf Frederic Michalak reopened the gap and meant Shane Williams’ sparkling try came too late.
PHOTO: REUTERS
France coach Marc Lievremont was able to celebrate three successive victories for the first time since taking over after the 2007 World Cup and two more, at home to Italy and England, will secure their first title since 2007.
“We’re split between happiness and relief after that second half because with a 20-point lead, to suffer as we suffered in the second half is incredible,” Lievremont told reporters. “We lost all coherence even before the break. In the dressing room, all the players were overexcited, they were all talking. The second half has been a long ordeal. It was like the specter of [the] Wales-Scotland game.”
Wales started well, but the momentum shifted after six minutes when Palisson picked off a floated James Hook pass to run 60m and score under the posts.
PHOTO: AFP
With their scrum looking solid, France then enjoyed a spell on top and two penalties from Parra edged them further clear.
Wales tried a desperate attack at the end of the half, but it went badly wrong again when flyhalf Trinh-Duc anticipated Shane Williams’ pass out of the tackle for another easy score.
After two Jones three-pointers, a terrific pass by Williams set Halfpenny free and he showed great pace to score in the corner and restore home hopes.
Jones converted well from the touchline and with Parra sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on, the Welsh fans began to believe another sensational comeback could be on the cards.
Against Scotland two weeks ago they trailed by 10 points with five minutes remaining and somehow won the match, and they had further chances to close the gap on Friday.
Some poor decisions and poor handling meant, however, that they failed to register a point while France were down to 14 men and Michalak stretched the lead back to 13 points.
Williams then marked his 33rd birthday with his 50th Welsh try, another superb jinking effort that Jones again converted, but this time it came too late.
“Those two [intercept] tries have been very costly. It’s frustrating,” Wales coach Warren Gatland said. “We could have thrown in the towel, but the guys came out, played some great rugby [and] put themselves in position to win the game.”
“We tried to play a lot of rugby. France never really threatened our line all match,” he said. “They got two intercepts and kicked four penalties, but never really got in our 22 and put us under pressure. There was one team trying to play some rugby, but we have just got to stop pushing the self-destruct button.”
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
PREDICTION: Last week, when Yu’s father made a wrong turn to the former champions’ parking lot, he said that his son could park there after this year With back-to-back birdies on the 18th hole, Kevin Yu fulfilled his driving range-owning dad’s prediction that he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship and become Taiwan’s third golfer to claim a US PGA Tour title. The Taoyuan-born 26-year-old, who represented Taiwan in the Olympic golf at Paris, saw off Californian Beau Hossler in a playoff at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday. Having drained a 15-foot putt to claw his way into the playoff, Yu rolled in from five feet on the first extra hole, ensuring he joined Chen Tze-chung (LA Open in 1987) and Pan Cheng-tsung (RBC
LeBron James and eldest son Bronny James claimed a piece of NBA history on Sunday after making their long-awaited first appearance alongside each other for the Los Angeles Lakers. The duo appeared together at the start of the second quarter in the Lakers’ 118-114 preseason defeat to the Phoenix Suns in Palm Desert, east of Los Angeles. While LeBron James impressed with 19 points in just 16 minutes and 20 seconds on court before sitting out the second half, Bronny found the going harder with zero points in just over 13 minutes on court. The younger James attempted just one
RSS