France started their 2007 Six Nations campaign in perfect style with a convincing 3-39 victory over Italy at Stadio Flaminio on Saturday. Having looked rusty in the opening quarter France finally found their straps and dominated for the remainder of a one-sided affair.
We thought Italy might give France a scare, maybe even a nasty surprise. In the event, the mental fragility under pressure that has gnawed away at Italy's progress in other areas once again undermined their efforts.
Pierre Berbizier accused his counterpart Bernard Laporte of wasting playing resources this week, but the majority of the wastage came from his own team, who enjoyed stacks of possession yet barely crossed the gain-line most of the time, never mind the French defensive line.
The Azzurri were not short of opportunity, but the execution was shocking -- never better exemplified than just before half-time, when Fabio Ongaro butchered a two-man overlap and instead lost possession in the tackle.
Italy also had two penalty kicks in the first five minutes, both eminently kickable, but Andrea Scannavacca missed the first when he slipped on the threadbare, sandy turf, and Roland de Marigny's attempt looked as though he had booted a set of bagpipes. It barely made the try-line.
Thus did a lot of good Italian build-up play, particularly from both Bergamasci and Sergio Parisse, go to waste, and thus did the confidence wane. For much of the second half, they rarely rose beyond three-quarters pace, with the backs standing flat and the forwards not producing clean enough ball.
France, on the other hand, look to have made significant steps forward since November. Pierre Mignoni's brisk service and acceleration at scrum-half added some zip to the play around the pack fringes, which was France's main avenue of attack.
Sébastian Chabal finally brought shades of his Sale form to the blue shirt around those fringes, and David Skréla looked comfortable at fly-half, although he was provided with plenty of space by his pack and by Mignoni. Stiffer tests might exploit a slight slowness of service, but experience might speed it up too.
The French pack as a whole proved more than equal to the Italian pack, and the first score of the game came as a direct result, when Olivier Milloud scrummed Carlos Nieto to pieces on the Italian 22. Skréla kicked the penalty to make it 0-3 after eight minutes.
The next score came as a direct result of that poor Italian execution. After Parisse and Mirco Bergamsco had made good ground, out the ball came left to De Marigny, but his pass for Ongaro went to ground and Dominici hacked on, and on again, before picking up on the bounce and sauntering under the posts.
That score -- Skréla made it 0-10 with the conversion -- was after 24 minutes, and it was a lone bright spark in some pretty grim stuff. Any Italian breaks got bogged down by slow support, and France were conservative in approach, and effective in their conservatism.
Only once did the backs stitch some passes together, with Clément Poitrenaud, Mignoni, Skréla and Florian Fritz all involved, but the latter chipped when an offload would have been more appropriate and gave the ball away.
France extended the lead on the half-hour mark with a try that owed everything to Mignoni's will to attack. When the scrum-half sucked in two defenders on the blind side, his flat pass was expertly flicked on by Skréla to Cédric Heymans, who was clean down the left and also went under the posts, Skréla making it 0-17.
Sébastian Chabal scored his first try for France right on half-time, with Mignoni once again making some yards around the fringe, and Raphaël Ibañez driving on to 2m from the line before the number eight's enormous hirsute figure ploughed over the line. Skréla hit the post with the conversion, and at 3-22, that was the end of a disappoiting first half.
The second half barely rose above the pedestrian. France were quite content to close proceedings out away from their own half, and even more so after Chabal had taken Mignoni's clever flat pop for his second try after 44 minutes, with Skréla's conversion making it 3-29.
Bar a brief flurry from the backs early on, Italy offered nothing, and worryingly for them, the substitutes didn't make any difference either. France, as a whole, shut up shop magnificently, but there was nothing Italy could find to pick the locks open.
From another Italian handling error, Skréla nearly claimed his first try in French colours when he hacked through another dropped Italian pass, but was denied in the corner by Mirco Bergamasco.
Then on the hour mark Jauzion did claim the sixth try, after Poitrenaud and Heymans had won back a high Skréla kick and drawn the covering defence.
Substitute Lionel Beauxis claimed his first points in French senior colours, landing a late penalty judiciously kicked while Chabal was treated after a heavy collision, and rounding off the scoring.
So plenty of firsts for the French, and a new dawn of sorts after November's dark patch, but precious little light for Italy, who have seven days to forget this performance before stepping into England's HQ.
Man of the match: Has to be French. Mauro Bergamasco and Gonzalo Canale played well for Italy in parts, and Pierre Mignoni has confirmed his presence on France's healthy list of top-notch scrum-halves. But today's excellence was France number eight Sébastian Chabal, whose running and strength, as well as his two tries, gave France the perfect platform to go forward.
Moment of the match: Cédric Heymans' try, or more specifically, David Skréla's sleight of hand that set the Toulouse winger on his way.
Villain of the match: Nothing to report. Italy were too submissive and France too focussed for any villainy.
The Scorers:
For Italy:
Pen: Pez
For France:
Tries: Dominici, Heymans, Chabal 2, Jauzion
Cons: Skréla 4
Pens: Skréla, Beauxis
The Teams:
Italy: 15 Roland de Marigny, 14 Denis Dallan, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Andrea Masi, 10 Andrea Scanavacca, 9 Paul Griffen, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami (c), 4 Santiago Dellapè, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Martín Leandro Castrogiovanni, 19 Roberto Mandelli, 20 Alessandro Troncon, 21 Ramiro Pez, 22 Kaine Robertson
France: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Christophe Dominici, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 David Skréla, 9 Pierre Mignoni, 8 Sebastian Chabal, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Serge Betsen, 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Jérôme Thion, 3 Pieter de Villiers, 2 Raphaël Ibañez (c), 1 Olivier Milloud.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Pascal Papé, 19 Imañol Harinordoquy, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Vincent Clerc.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: Dave Pearson (England), Rob Debney (England)
Television match official: Tim Hayes (Wales)
Assessor: Michel Lamoulie (France)
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