Wales 34 France 23

Welsh fly-half continued to close in on the all-time scoring record of Michael Lynagh as hes scored 29 points in Wales eighth straight win a row over a woeful looking France.

Wales' record point scorer Jenkins struck nine penalties, to equal the world record held jointly by Andrew Mehretns and Keiji Hirose, and a conversion as the powerful Welsh pack dominated their French counterparts in front of 63,000 fans.

Winger Dafyyd James crowned the win with an excellent try in the corner towards the end as Wales made up for a poor first half with an impressive display after the turnaround.

But coach Graham Henry said his team were lucky not to have been punished for their sloppiness and must improve for the opening match of the World Cup against Argentina.

Henry said:  "If we played the same as we did in the second half we could beat Argentina but if we played the way we did in the first half they would put 30 points on us.

"We cannot afford to play like that in the World Cup.  The first half was poor but the second half was pretty good.  I think we should be pleased with our six months.  Winning eight games in a row.  But that's a worrying situation.  You have to look at everything.  If we go on winning nine or 10 matches, that tends to be your Achilles heel."

France, desperate to rediscover their Five Nations form of 1998 with the World Cup under five weeks away, were the better side early on and should have had considerably more than six points on the board by half-time.

Jenkins, who is set to overhaul Michael Lynagh's world record of 911 points in the coming weeks, kept the Welsh in the game with four penalties to give the home side a 12-6 lead going into the second period.

Wales were a different proposition after the break and their relentless pressure forced a string of errors from the French which Jenkins exploited with a further five successful penalties.

Wales were growing in confidence by the 73rd minute, when James raced clear to score in the left corner to seal victory.

The French camp later claimed that the Welsh had been guilty of foul play in an explosive opening to the match.

French fly-half Thomas Castaignede did not say what he believed the Welsh were doing but he put two fingers in the air towards his eyes indicating gouging.

Castaignede said:  "I think that some Welshmen did some bad things to us.  It's difficult for us to play with that."

French backs coach Pierre Villepreux supported his player's claims, adding:  "There was intimidation during the opening of the first half by the Welsh team.At the beginning of the game the Welsh players were doing bad things to us but we will not worry about looking at a video of the match."

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Peter Rogers, 2 Garin Jenkins, 3 Dai Young, 4 Craig Quinnell, 5 Chris Wyatt, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Brett Sinkinson, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley (c), 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Dafydd James, 12 Scott Gibbs, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Gareth Thomas, 15 Shane Howarth
Reserves:  Mike Voyle
Unused:  David Llewellyn, Allan Bateman, Ben Evans, Jonathan Humphreys, Stephen Jones, Andrew Lewis

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Raphael Ibanez (c), 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 Abdelatif Benazzi, 5 Fabien Pelous, 6 Marc Lievremont, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Thomas Lievremont, 9 Stephane Castaignede, 10 Thomas Castaignede, 11 Ugo Mola, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Stephane Glas, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves:  David Auradou, Marc Dal Maso, Christophe Lamaison, Lionel Mallier, Emile Ntamack, Cedric Soulette, Pierre Mignoni

Referee:  Honiss p.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  James D.R. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 1
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 9

France
Tries:  Mallier L. 1, Mignoni P. 1
Conv:  Dourthe R. 1, Lamaison C. 1
Pen K.:  Dourthe R. 2, Lamaison C. 1