Wales beat France 16-6 in Six Nations
IT was by no means a classic, but Wales ended their miserable losing run with a dogged Six Nations victory over a hapless France in Paris.
A try from Scarlets wing George North eight minutes from time and a superb long-range penalty from man of the match Leigh Halfpenny sealed a first win in nine matches for Rob Howley's side.
It was Wales's first triumph at the Stade de France since 2005, but while that triumph on the road to the Grand Slam was won by some magical moments in attack, here Wales relied on stubborn, gutsy determination in defence and some good old fashioned grunt up front.
North will grab the headlines after latching onto Biggar's perfectly-weighted crossfield kick, but the Welsh pack with Ryan Jones, Toby Faletau and Gethin Jenkins to the fore deserve the plaudits.
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As for France, it was one of their worst performances in recent memory and they left the field to a cacophony of boos and whistles at full-time.
Both sides had gone into the match knowing defeat would effectively end their hopes of challenging for the title this term.
Wales showed three changes from the side beaten by Ireland in Cardiff a week earlier with the Ospreys trio of Justin Tipuric, Ryan Jones and Richard Hibbard drafted in – Jones wearing the captain's armband following a shoulder injury to Sam Warburton.
Toulon battering ram Mathieu Bastareaud, the tormentor of Wales on his Paris debut four years ago, was brought in by Phillipe Saint-Andre to add ballast to the midfield, while Jocelino Suta replaced injured skipper Pascal Pape at lock.
Otherwise Saint-Andre kept faith with the men who were woefully off colour in Rome on the opening weekend.
You had to go back as far as 1982 for the last time France had lost their opening two games of the championship and the Stade de France was a subdued arena for large parts of an error-strewn first half.
With defences dominating, a 14th minute penalty by Frederic Michalak was cancelled out by a short-range strike from Halfpenny.
The home side came the closest to getting across the whitewash, but spurned a couple of overalaps, notably when full-back Yoann Huget ignored wing Wesley Fofana five yards out.
To their credit, Wales's scrambling defence was proving far more effective than a week earlier, but they were still lacking cohesion with ball in hand.
Scrum-half Mike Phillips had a couple of strong bursts, while Tipuric was rarely away from the action.
As for France, it was left to Bastareaud to liven up the Parisian crowd with a couple of trademark rib-ticklers.
A breakout by Phillips paved the way for Halfpenny to give Wales a 6-3 lead a minute from the restart, but it wasn't long before Michalak restored the equilibrium from another Welsh scrum infringement.
There was a brief threat of the game bursting into life, but both sides continued to struggle to put any concerted attacks together.
In the end Biggar's brilliant piece of skill and vision saw his chip bounce into the arms of North whose power did the rest.
And, fittingly, it was the outstanding Halfpenny who had the final word with a long-range penalty that just cleared the crossbar.
2 Comments
by Blackmamba
Monday, February 11 2013, 1:20AM
“A great, gutsy performance from Wales, Ryan Jones HAS to retain the captaincy,a motivator who leads by example and the rest of the back row keep their places whether Warburton is fit or not. Hopefully Dan biggar has silenced his ill-informed,ignorant critics. Coombes has really done well in the second row (take note Stuart Davies) but the return of Alun Wyn Jones can only strengthen the side so Wales can go into the next game with confidence.”
by VISIONSKI
Sunday, February 10 2013, 11:52AM
“This win was way over due, Wales should now play with confidence as a result. Wales can also look forward to the return of some of their more influential players from injury. Perhaps binging in Alyn Wyn Jones might booster the pack, apart from that the team deserves another run out.”