Wales' run of eight consecutive Six Nations victories came to an end in Paris on Friday, as France finally stitched all the component parts of their game together and produced a terrific second half of rugby to win 21-16.
The hosts went 51 minutes without conceding a penalty following Lee Byrne's 24th minute try which gave the Welsh a 13-3 lead, notching 18 unanswered points before holding off a fierce late Welsh onslaught.
"If we win we'll be right, and if we lose you can say that we are incompetent and pass us off as idiots," Marc Lièvremont said to reporters who had questioned the wisdom of playing with no specialist goal-kicker, no specialist fly-half starting, and an untried 20-year-old in the middle.
In the event, the fly-half did just fine before he went off injured and the 20-year-old had a more than passable debut. As for the goal-kicker: Morgan Parra joins Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Dimitri Yachvili on the list of French international scrum-halves who could boot a ball through an archer's slit from 50 yards. Lièvremont was right. If the French back this up with similar domination of England in a fortnight's time -- not unthinkable -- it could herald a new era.
If France had all the problems and pressure before the game, Wales have a few after it. An uncharacteristic indiscipline undermined their efforts; in that period the French didn't concede a penalty, the Welsh gave away nine. It's not worth a panic yet -- better teams have lost in Paris when the French are on song -- but by Wales' own high standards, this was a step down.
Whatever it was to the teams, it was the game of the tournament to all of us watching, full of fluidity, endeavour, tactical nuance and surprise. Did France win because they wised up to the lack of Welsh bodies at rucks? Will the Welsh feel hard done-by from the referee? How good was Imanol Harinordoquy? Should the Welsh have speeded the game up sooner? How much more room do the French have to develop from this point, or was this the benchmark performance Lièvremont had demanded? All rugby fans watching had plenty to both admire and ponder, the perfect rugby experience.
Certainly the answer to the first of those questions is a resounding "yes". In the first few minutes the Welsh got themselves into a 6-3 lead courtesy of two penalties.
The French had opted not to contest rucks in defence early on, perhaps hoping that the Welsh might over-run themselves with ball in hand and get isolated. Instead, they were caught offside once and pinged once for playing the ball on the ground. But eventually the Welsh were lulled into a false sense of security; the French later turned over oodles of ball by sending bodies into the thick of it in defence, blue shirts often outnumbering red by two to one.
The Welsh in defence were even more reticent; frequently a French ruck would be marked with one Welsh tackler and two Welsh pillars, with the other twelve strung across the pitch in rigid defensive formation and five or six blue shirts piled up to secure possession. Again, the French got streetwise and adapted, starting hitting the ball at pace and from deeper, and got the upper hand.
On the basis of all that, Wales were their own worst enemies. Being outnumbered at a ruck in an age where referees are encouraged to whistle any attempt to steal ball that lasts longer than a nanosecond is not particularly clever. There may be grumbles about refereeing consistency but they'll find short shrift from most watching, particularly after what Wales' defence did to England a fortnight ago.
Still, they led 13-3 after 24 minutes after a magnificent try from Lee Byrne, who sliced through a gap at full tilt on an unstoppable angle from 40m with not a fingernail laid on him.
That should have been the cue to speed things up. France had already struggled with direct running from deep, especially from Tom Shanklin. Instead, the Welsh backs remained infuriatingly flat, removing their ability to create such gaps.
Instead, the game belonged to France from that moment on. They had already shown signs of their in-game development when Bastareaud's break had taken the french to the line and Harinordoquy had touched the ball down, only for the move to be whistled for excessive usage of the hand in presenting the ball -- an extraordinary harsh call given some of the leeway allowed for ball presentation at times.
That was on 21 minutes. That was the last time the French conceded a penalty before Harinordoquy was caught going into the side of a ruck on 72 minutes. That was the difference between the teams.
Five minutes before half-time Maxime Médard's break resulted in a penalty which Parra converted effortlessly to make it 13-6, right on the stroke of half-time Harinordoquy picked off the base of a scrum and drove to 2m out, stopped short by a brilliant tackle from Shane Williams. Two picks and drives and a conversion later, Thierry Dusautoir and Parra had levelled the scores at the break.
Wales started the second half brighter, with a Mike Philips box-kick causing consternation in the French defence and Tom Shanklin driving close. Here the difference became apparent again: French bodies there tempted the Welsh to drive in off their feet and give the position away.
France took the lead on 53 minutes, swinging the ball left after Harinordoquy had made the hard yards and scoring through Heymans despite doing their best to butcher a four on two overlap. Parra blotted his copybook with the conversion and a penalty ten minutes later, both of which shaved the post, but by now France had the game in control.
Bastareaud made another break which Heymans nearly capitalised on, Parra put his side two scores ahead with a penalty for an early tackle as Wales struggled to cope with the depth of the French support runners.
Finally the veneer of French discipline broke on 71 minutes, with Harinordoquy, of all people, caught going into the side of a ruck. James Hook, whose introduction had been long overdue, made it 21-16.
Cue some frantic Welsh catch-up rugby -- reminiscent of four years ago at the very same venue. Cue another mad scramble for the line off a ruck from Martyn Williams. But there was no magical ending this time as the French piled bodies into a ruck on the line and turned the ball over.
Man of the match: King of the line-outs and the loose, Imanol Harinordoquy was a colossus, the benchmark player of a top-notch game.
Moment of the match: That late turnover sealed the deal, a super piece of defensive graft under heavy pressure.
Villain of the match: Tom Shanklin was lucky not to get a yellow card for a mid-air tackle on Harinordoquy, but that bit of villainy was cancelled out by the meal the Frenchman made of his landing. No award.
The scorers:
For France:
Tries: Dusautoir, Heymans
Con: Parra
Pens: Parra 3
For Wales:
Try: Byrne
Con: S. Jones
Pens: S. Jones 2, Hook
France: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Julien Malzieu, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cedric Heymans, 10 Benoit Baby, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Sebastien Chabal, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Romain Millo-Chluski, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 21 Francois Trinh-Duc, 22 Clement Poitrenaud.
Wales: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Michael Phillips, 8 Andy Powell, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Ryan Jones (c), 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 John Yapp, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Dafydd Jones, 20 Dwayne Peel, 21 James Hook, 22 Gavin Henson
Referee: Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Touch judges: Alain Rolland (Ireland), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Television match official: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
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