Australia 18 France 13

A succession of missed penalty kicks from French flyhalf Christophe Lamaison proved to be the difference between France and Australia on Saturday night at the Stade de France as Australia ran out 18-13 winners.

Lamaison missed three penalties and centre Richard Dourthe one, while Australian wing Matt Burke made no mistake with six attempts at goal.  The game had its fair share of drama before kick-off, with the news that in-form fullback Thomas Castaignede would not take part in the game.  Castaignede had been in doubt in the build-up, but now talk is that the Saracens star might have a torn or broken an Achilles tendon, which could keep him out of the game for a considerable time.

Xavier Garbajosa, who would no doubt have had bad memories from the last time he played against Australia, replaced Castaignede.  Stade Francais prop Pieter de Villiers was brought on to the bench to replace Garbajosa, which was about as surprising as the initial front row selected for the match.

The French made all the play in the first quarter of the match, but it was Australia's Matt Burke who got the scoreboard ticking over with a well-taken penalty in the 20th minute.  Before then Lamaison had already missed his first kick of the day, which, it must be said, was a long-range effort.

Lamaison's restart was knocked forward by Wallaby lock David Giffin from restart and it almost resulted in a try for French centre Franck Comba.  Comba rounded his Australian counterpart Stirling Mortlock with ease, but a quick recovery from the Brumbies utility saw him ankle-tap the French No.12 and avoid the five-pointer.

The Wallabies managed to work their way out of their own territory and when Burke was given another shot at goal, he didn't miss, making it 6-0 to the Wallabies.

Shortly before half-time Lamaison managed to get his team on the board with a penalty after Australia went off-sides, but from the restart, France were penalised for the same offence.  Burke stepped up and put his team into a 9-3 lead at the break.

With the second half only minutes old, the French were given a chance to cut the lead back to three points after Australia were penalised for collapsing a maul, but Lamaison missed the kick again.

When the French were awarded their second penalty of the half the kicking duties went to centre Richard Dourthe.  Dourthe followed Lamaison's example by missing the kick at goal, but the crowd seemed more upset than usual.  Some quarters of the crowd had noticed on the big-screen replay that the kick had in fact crept over the crossbar.  Scottish referee Jim Fleming ruled that the kick was not over, whereas replays after the match proved that it was.

Burke was soon presented with another kick at goal after some incessant pressure from the Wallabies resulted in a professional foul from French halfback Fabien Galthie.

The restart from Lamaison saw the ball spilt forward by the French, but with the referee playing advantage for Australia the Wallabies got the ball down their backline.  Daniel Herbert couldn't get the ball to his wing, but the French had gone off-sides by then.  Burke again -- and the Wallabies led 15-3.

Going into the last 10 minutes of the match, Burke had stretched the lead to 18-3 and it seemed as if the match was going to fizzle out into a big Wallaby win, but it all changed when debutante flanker George Smith was penalised and sent to the sin bin for a dangerous and high tackle on Comba.  It's questionable whether or not referee Paul Honiss was in the right, but it seemed to spur the French on.

Some of the best rugby of the match was played in the period Smith spent in the bin, and the dreadlocked rookie must've been hoping that his exit didn't leave too much of a void.  But Smith's worst fears would have been confirmed when French prop Christian Califano drove over from close-in.  The French could smell blood and Lamaison's conversion was greeted with relief from the crowd.

Lamaison soon added another kick, this time a penalty, and with three minutes left it was game on, but the Wallabies were afforded the luxury of completing the game with Smith, whose time in the sin bin was over.

The Wallaby defence held firm in the closing stages, which forced Lamaison into a kick ahead in the Australian in-goal area.  Australian fullback Chris Latham managed to get there first and when dotted down was greeted with the final whistle.

Man of the match:  Matt Burke.  At the end of the day Burke's goalkicking proved to be the difference between the two teams.  He slotted back into the Wallaby team, in the unfamiliar role of right wing, as if he had been playing there all year.

Moment of the match:  The sin-binning of George Smith seemed to raise France's performance.  It allowed them an overlap, but it also seemed to make them play with more purpose and allowed for a pulsating finish.  The decision from Mr Honiss seemed a bit harsh at the time.  While one can't argue that it was dangerous, there was no intent to harm and perhaps a warning could have sufficed.

Villain of the match:  In a match of this magnitude, touch-judge Jim Fleming's decision on Dourthe's "missed" penalty was shocking.  While it was a tough call to make, if he had any doubt at all he should have told the ref.  Even Wallaby wing Matt Burke conceded after the game that he thought the kick was over.

The teams:

Australia:  1 Fletcher Dyson, 2 Michael Foley, 3 Bill Young, 4 John Eales (c), 5 David Giffin, 6 Matt Cockbain, 7 George Smith, 8 Toutai Kefu, 9 Sam Cordingley, 10 Rod Kafer, 11 Matthew Burke, 12 Dan Herbert, 13 Stirling Mortlock, 14 Joe Roff, 15 Chris Latham
Reserves:  Mark Connors, Jeremy Paul, Glenn Panoho, Jim Williams
Unused:  Elton Flatley, Nathan Grey, Chris Whitaker

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Fabrice Landreau, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Thomas Lombard, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Franck Comba, 14 David Bory, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves:  David Auradou, Olivier Azam, Serge Betsen Tchoua, Franck Tournaire
Unused:  Philippe Carbonneau, Yann Delaigue, Pieter De Villiers

Attendance:  65000
Referee:  Honiss p.

Points Scorers:

Australia
Pen K.:  Burke M.C. 6

France
Tries:  Galthie F. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 1
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 2