Scotland 23 Italy 19

Duncan Hodge kicked Scotland to their first Six Nations victory of the season as they beat Italy 23-19 at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Fly-half Hodge was successful with five of his seven attempts, scoring 17 points, including five penalties and one drop goal, helping Scotland to narrowly avenge last season's shock 34-20 defeat in Rome.

However, Scottish captain Budge Pountney dismissed the fact the win had not been convincing.  "To get the first win on board this season is important even if we weren't so pleased with the performance," he said.

"We made a couple of errors in the second-half which allowed them to get back in the game but overall it has been a positive day and it will give us confidence," he added.

Italy fly-half Diego Dominguez gave a typically peerless kicking display, scoring 14 points with his boot.  But this time it was not enough, although Italy did have the consolation of scoring the try of the match through flanker and man-of-the-match Mauro Bergamasco.

Italy have now lost all four of their matches in this season's championship, putting them in pole position for the wooden spoon.

This was a match Brad Johnstone's team could have won after being 10-6 up at the break.

Then Hodge and Dominguez exchanged penalty goals at the start of the second half before Italy No.8 Carlo Checchinato was yellow-carded by French referee Joel Dume for persistently killing the ball.

Hodge maintained his then perfect kicking record, slotting over the resultant penalty and Scotland were just a point behind at 12-13.

However, his 52nd-minute miss after Bergamasco had infringed left Italy's slender lead intact.  But three minutes later Scotland were in the lead.  Hodge kicked a penalty to touch and from the resultant drive Brive prop Tom Smith just did enough to ground the ball on the line.

Dume called for the video referee before awarding the score but worryingly for Scotland, Hodge missed the conversion with a wild slice to the right.  Even so they were 17-13 ahead.

Dominguez's boot was more reliable and another penalty took Italy back into the game at 17-16 behind and then his accurate kick put the vistors 19-17 ahead after the Scotland forwards erred again.

However, Italian discipline cracked when substitute Giovanni Raineri was penalised for preventing fair release and this time Hodge was on target to give Scotland a 20-19 lead.

Earlier Scotland signalled their intention to grasp the victory when Hodge took a leaf out of Welsh fly-half Neil Jenkins' book and fired over a drop-goal after 38 seconds to put the home side into an early 3-0 lead.

Their bright start continued when Hodge put up an enormous up-and-under, but the chasing Gregor Townsend could only knock on as full-back Cristian Stoica failed to collect.

Italy's first attack of any note was pulled up when Checchinato was penalised for illegal use of the boot.

Hodge kicked his first penalty of the afternoon to put his side 6-0 up when the Italians strayed offside after 21 minutes.

And they should have been even further in front when John Leslie and Townsend combined beautifully to put Craig away, but the youngster could not beat last line of defence Stoica who bundled him into touch.

With Townsend increasingly prominent Scotland continued to cut loose with sparkling rugby but Italy hung in gamely and got their reward through a sparkling 26th-minute try from Bergamasco.  The Treviso flanker took a pass from the base of a scrum -- given after Pountney lost possession in the tackle -- before slipping a Townsend tackle, stepping around Redpath and out-paced full-back Chris Paterson on his way to a 35-metre sprint to the line.

Dominguez fired over a superb touchline conversion to put the visitors into a shock 7-6 lead.  And he stretched it out to 10-6 almost immediately with a 45-metre penalty after another Pountney misdemeanour.

Italy rallied at the close but Scotland just did enough to cling on for an unconvincing win.

Yellow card:  Checchinato

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney (c), 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Bryan Redpath, 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 James Craig, 12 John Leslie, 13 Gregor Townsend, 14 Kenny Logan, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Gordon McIlwham, Jon Petrie, Cammie Murray, Steve Scott
Unused:  Richard Metcalfe, Glenn Metcalfe, Andy Nicol

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi (c), 3 Franco Properzi-Curti, 4 Wim Visser, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Carlo Checchinato, 9 Filippo Frati, 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Luca Martin, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Walter Pozzebon, 14 Massimiliano Perziano, 15 Cristian Stoica
Reserves:  Matteo Mazzantini, Carlo Caione, Salvatore Perugini, Giovanni Raineri
Unused:  Andrea Benatti, Giampiero De Carli, Andrea Scanavacca

Att:  60,708
Referee:  Joel Dume (Fra)

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Smith T.J. 1
Pen K.:  Hodge D.W. 5
Drop G.:  Hodge D.W. 1

Italy
Tries:  Bergamasco M. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 4

Wales 43 France 35

A magnificent 28 points from fly-half Neil Jenkins inspired Wales to their first back-to-back success in Paris since 1957 on Saturday as they beat France 43-35 in a pulsating encounter that saw the lead change three times.

Jenkins, who also broached the 1000 points mark for Wales in his 83rd international was appropriately the last try scorer for the visitors who at one point trailed 19-6.

The Welsh outscored the French by four tries to two -- Robert Howley's superb individual effort from within his 22 just before halftime sparking a great Welsh comeback -- with Scott Quinnell and Dafydd James grabbing the others.

Tries from Sebastien Bonetti, his second in two matches, and winger Philippe Bernat-Salles, making it four in four matches of the tournament, and 14 from Gerald Merceron were the base of the French score.

But the French will be kicking themselves for missing a string of scoring opportunities throughout the game.

"That was as good a game of rugby as you'll see," said Welsh coach Graham Henry.  "I'm delighted for the boys.  I thought they were brilliant in the second half ... we controlled the game and had more composure than the French," he added.  "Rob's try was the catalyst really.  It helped motivate the guys and created the things which followed," he added.

Henry said he had been delighted by Jenkins' virtuoso display, which saw him break the 1,000-point barrier for Wales.  "I thought his second half was magic.  I don't know if he has played a better 40 minutes of rugby in a Welsh shirt," Henry said.

Jenkins played down the significance of finally bringing up his 1,000.  "Rugby's a team game.  It's nice to get it but it's just an honour and a privilege to wear the red jersey," he said.

Henry's counterpart Bernard Laporte was downcast in defeat, bemoaning his side's self-destructive streak.

"At 19-6 we were in control of the game.  But we got caught in the trap of trying to run the ball too much," Laporte said.

"We ended up getting very tired in the second half and just didn't have the juice," he said.  "Once again we also failed to score from clear chances, which was disappointing," he added, referring to earlier matches this season where France have frittered away try-scoring opportunities.

France were guilty of several glaring misses and should have started the second-half with a try but Jean-Luc Sadourny, still defying his 34 years with electric bursts, failed to make a 2-1 overlap come off and Wales were able to clear eventually.

Merceron, who had given the French backs the spark that Lamaison had failed to in the first three matches, had to go off after just three minutes of the second period with a knee injury allowing Lamaison a chance to rediscover his lost form.

The Welsh, though, struck the front for the first time when Mark Taylor, whose ankle injury has not yet fully healed, slipped a pass to Quinnell and with Sadourny slipping on the greasy surface raced over to touch down -- Jenkins converted for a 23-19 lead.

The French replied with a penalty but Wales emboldened by their new found verve restored the four-point lead when Jenkins magnetic boot dropped a goal from 35 metres out to bring up his 1000 point mark for the Red Dragons.

The Welsh were on fire now and a superb move with Quinnell charging into the line passing on to Taylor whose pass inside to James coming in off his wing brought them their third try of a blistering period of play.

The French fans had had enough and out came the whistles and jeers though Jenkins, who had converted James' try, failed for once with the boot from a 35 metres penalty.

However, with just over 20 minutes to go Howley turned villain when he lost possession just inside France's half and in a sweeping move Sadourny burst into the line to deliver the telling pass to fellow veteran Bernat-Salles, who raced over for his first try against Wales in three meetings.

Bonetti almost grabbed a second for himself when he took a superb pass from Lamaison on the burst and was stopped just short of the line by Gareth Thomas -- though Lamaison slotted over a penalty a minute later to to leave them just a point adrift.

Bonetti was rampant by this stage and another storming run saw him again grounded by Thomas just inches from the line with fullback Rhys Williams hacking the loose ball into touch but Lamaison gave France the lead 35-33 with a coolly-taken penalty five minutes from the end.

The Welsh though rallied and Jenkins restored their lead with a minute to go with another sublime drop goal.

The 23-year-old centre, who had got his place in the side on the back of Yannick Jauzion's injury prior to the Italy match, had given the French the perfect start when he touched down under the posts after just 10 minutes when Merceron burst through the Welsh midfield and passed inside to him.

France should have had another try minutes later when they had a huge overlap but Bernat-Salles somehow contrived to mess it up -- though Merceron slotted over a penalty for a subsequent infringement.

Henry reacted to these two quick scores by giving his replacements a run round the pitch to try and inspire the team -- seconds later Jenkins got their first points with a penalty.  However, Henry's call for the players to use their heads evidently hadn't got through and trying to run it out of their 22 they conceded a penalty which Merceron accepted readily to restore the 10 point deficit.

The Welsh were at sixes and sevens at this point and handed the French another penalty which Merceron's unerring boot found easily within its range to make it 16-3.

The visitors muffed a great opportunity in the 25th minute when with no French defence in sight a wild pass by Taylor went behind Thomas and a surefire try went abegging -- which was slightly redressed when Jenkins added a penalty a minute later for 16-6.

However, the status quo of the first-half was restored when Merceron added another penalty after fullback Williams, who was having a nightmare match, failed to release the ball after being tackled.

Jenkins, though, kept Wales in the hunt with a cracking penalty from just within the French half to make it 19-9.

Centre Thomas Lombard showed why he had managed only one try in his previous 11 appearances by slipping over with a free run to the line as the French carved up the Welsh defence down the blindside.

However, then came Howley's moment of supreme genius picking the ball up from a scrum in his own 22 and sprinting the length of the pitch and with Thomas in support turned Sadourny inside out and evaded the desperate late surge by Bernat-Salles.  Jenkins converted to make it 19-16 at halftime.

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Darren Morris, 2 Robin McBryde, 3 Dai Young (c), 4 Ian Gough, 5 Andrew Moore, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Martyn Williams, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley, 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Dafydd James, 12 Scott Gibbs, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Gareth Thomas, 15 Rhys Williams
Reserves:  Geraint Lewis, Stephen Jones, Andrew Lewis, Craig Quinnell
Unused:  Gareth Cooper, Chris Anthony, Allan Bateman

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 David Auradou, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Gerald Merceron, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Thomas Lombard, 13 Sebastien Bonetti, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Jean-Luc Sadourny
Reserves:  Serge Betsen Tchoua, Christophe Lamaison, Sylvain Marconnet
Unused:  Philippe Carbonneau, Fabrice Landreau, Pepito Elhorga, Lionel Nallet

Referee:  Lewis a.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Howley R. 1, James D.R. 1, Jenkins N.R. 1, Quinnell L.S. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 4
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 3
Drop G.:  Jenkins N.R. 2

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Bonetti S. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 1, Merceron G. 1
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 3, Merceron G. 4

England 43 Scotland 3

An impressive, if not perfect, England simply blew away the challenge of Scotland in the Calcutta Cup with two tries from Iain Balshaw helping them to a record 43-3 win at Twickenham.

The win, the biggest ever for England between these two nations, underlined just why it looks likely that only a fantastic effort from Ireland, or worringly the more malevolent influence of foot-and-mouth, can surely deny England the Grand Slam.

Scotland were competitive for the first half an hour but once England got in to their stride, they were little more than that and at the heart of things going forward for England was Iain Balshaw.

Whatever his defensive frailties, and again there were some yet again, he brings an attacking edge from fullback that many sides find hard to counter and, after his negative comments earlier in the week, Finlay Calder may well be donning his Braveheart gear for an impressive Mel Gibson impersonation.

A modest Balshaw refused to ram the words down Calder's throat, saying:  "He's entitled to his opinion, and I was just delighted with the performance, and coming up with a good result."

It is a mark of how far England have come, and the expectation heaped upon them, that many will point to a less than perfect line-out, only winning 12 out of their 15, seven turnovers and 13 handling errors.

However, such was their dominance they could afford such lapses and, although many in the southern hemipshere will point to a lack of credible challengers in the Six Nations, England have an hardened and efficient edge that they have lacked over the past few years.

A delighted England manager Clive Woodward said after another impressive 15-man display from his side that it was the mix of styles that separates his side from the one which flopped in the 1999 World Cup.

"The ambition and variety is what pleases me.  In the past we've been too predictable.  We have a special group of players but you've got to pick them."

"The no tries conceded pleases me as well, espeially at the end when we lost our shape a bit.  We can't wait for the next game, but I'm not going to get carried away," he added.

Another England star who chalked up two tries on the day was former captain Lawrence Dallaglio, who said afterwards:  "It was a potentially tricky game, and they always raise their game when they play England.

"Our defensive training all week has been absolutely spot on, and we were determined not to concede any tries.  In the seond-half we maybe got the ball out wide a bit too early, but it's nice to be on the scoresheet, and a lot nicer to win."

Scotland coach Ian McGeechan refused to condemn his side after a start to the game which had them in contention, saying:  "I'm disappointed with the final score, although we came to the speed of the game pretty well in the first half.

"We can't take anything away from that England performance, and it was their two tries just before half-time which took them away.  We couldn't cause them to think at the right times."

With the British and Irish Lions selection already a talking point, former Lions coach McGeechan said of the current England side:  "A lot of them have to be in contention."

After an opening spell where midfield defences were on top England took the lead in the seventh minute.

Following good work by England lock Danny Grewcock flying full-back Balshaw surged forward.  Balshaw, who created a buzz of excitement in the crowd whenever he used his electrifying pace, cut through the cover.

Flanker Neil Back was in support and the retreating Scots could not prevent an overlap when No.8 Lawrence Dallaglio took a pass from centre Mike Catt to touchdown out on the right.  England fly-half Wilkinson missed the conversion, sparking concern that last weekend's poor kicking form from the English Cup final here, might be returning.

Dallaglio's try did not see the floodgates open, however.  The Scottish defence was initially resilient and the visitors enjoyed territory through the astute kicking of wing Cameron Murray and outside-half Duncan Hodge.

But a 10th minute Wilkinson penalty put England 8-0 up before Hodge responded in kind three minutes later.

The match then became bogged down although England looked dangerous when they moved the ball wide and Scotland wing Kenny Logan caused comcern with a lone break.

But in the 37th minute England's greater fluency was rewarded with another try.

After several phases of sustained possession, involving both forwards and backs, including superb hands from Greenwood, England again created an overlap on the right and flanker Richard Hill scored a converted try.

Then, in first-half extra time, England went further ahead.  More sustained handling finished with Wilkinson darting through before passing to Dallaglio for the Wasps forward's second try.

Wilkinson converted and England were on their way to a record-breaking result.

Three minutes after the break, it was Balshaw who effectively sealed the game.  Good midfield work from centre Will Greenwood and Leicester wing Austin Healey released Balshaw down the right to then shimmy through the defence for a fine try.

To make matters worse for Scotland, flanker Budge Pountney was sin-binned for kicking Northampton team-mate and England scrum-half Matt Dawson.

England's pack was also enjoying its work with a series of scrums.  From one five-metre shove the ball was moved wide to Healey but the Leicester man was knocked into the corner flag by a last-ditch tackle from full-back Chris Paterson.

Not that this slowed the scoring for long.  A brilliant cross-kick by centre Mike Catt found Bath team-mate Balshaw for his second try in the 62nd minute.  Jonny Wilkinson converted and England were 36-3 ahead.

The scoring was completed when a sprint through a tired Scotland defence by substitute Jason Robinson saw him feed Will Greenwood for a simple try under the posts.

A streaker then braved the cold to add a last-minute note of comedy -- but only England were probably laughing.

The Teams:

England:  1 Jason Leonard, 2 Dorian West, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Danny Grewcock, 5 Martin Johnson (c), 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Will Greenwood, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Iain Balshaw
Reserves:  Kyran Bracken, Mark Regan, Jason Robinson, Joe Worsley
Unused:  Martin Corry, Matt Perry, Trevor Woodman

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Richard Metcalfe, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Andy Nicol (c), 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Alan Bulloch, 13 John Leslie, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Gordon McIlwham, James Craig, Stuart Grimes, James McLaren, Bryan Redpath
Unused:  Jon Petrie, Steve Scott

Attendance:  75000
Referee:  Davies r.

Points Scorers:

England
Tries:  Dallaglio L.B.N. 2, Greenwood W.J.H. 1, Hill R.A. 1, Balshaw I.R. 2
Conv:  Wilkinson J.P. 5
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 1

Scotland
Pen K.:  Hodge D.W. 1

France 30 Italy 19

A less than convincing performance from Bernard Laporte's France side saw them churn out a 30-19 win over a down but not out Italy team in Saturday's Lloyds TSB Six Nations Championship clash in Rome.

The statistics will read that France out-scored Italy three tries to one, with scores from Sadourny, Bernat-Salles (pictured) and Bonetti for the visitors, but if ever evidence were needed of the mediocrity besetting the French Test side then this 80 minutes provided it.

With France limping in to half-time at 14-9 up, an incohesive and largely ineffective Italy team were always in the match, and when Massimiliano Perziano touched down for the Azzurri with ten minutes to go, France only had five points between themselves and a potentially embarrassing defeat.

Largely to blame was the horrendous goal-kicking of Christophe Lamaison, who not once, not twice, but three times missed penalties which would have been a gift to any club kicker down the leagues, with opposite number Diego Dominguez in typically ruthless form to keep his side in with a fighting chance.

French coach Bernard Laporte was less than delighted with the victory, but picked out some plus points saying:  "Our defence was good.  We could have killed the match much earlier if we had scored the missed penalties.

"I am satisfied but I know Lamaison can do much better.  He was picked for his goalkicking ability but never performed as he can."

The returning Alessandro Troncon was as much of a disappointment as the spectacle itself on the day, with a laboured and unclinical 65 minutes resulting in an early departure for the scrum-half returning from suspension -- admittedly only semi-fit for the game carrying a calf injury.

Under-fire Italy coach Brad Jonstone put the defeat in to perspective, while ducking questions about his reportedly tenuous hold on his job with the Italian Federation, saying:  "We are making progress.  But while we are running ahead other countries like England are sprinting ahead."

"Rugby is now a professional sport and we must go professional if we can catch up with the other countries."

But asked to criticise the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) Johnstone said:  "Unfortunately I cannot answer that question as I have a family to feed."

It was the returning hero Dominguez -- playing against a number of his Stade Francais team-mates -- who got the scoreboard ticking with a penalty after nine minutes for Italy, but France stole the lead five minutes later with a touch of class from Christophe Lamaison.

With the French attack apparently grinding to a halt on the Italy 22, the Agen stand-off went down the blindside and as the defence flocked round him like bees, he slipped through a superb low weighted kick to completely flat-foot the Italian rearguard.

The beneficiary was fullback Jean-Luc Sadourny, whose perfectly timed run saw the ball leap up in to his arms for the easiest of run ins, with Lamaison converting from in front of the posts.

France consigned an indecisive Italy to further misery after 26 minutes when a superb passage of play, started from a scrum outside their own 22 saw the returning Fabien Galthie break down the blindside and accelerate past the advancing defence.

He cleverly offloaded to the lively Sadourny who free of the Italian three-quarter line faced a two on one overlap for the score.  He drew the last man in textbook fashion on the 22 for wing Philippe Bernat-Salles to characteristically streak away at high speed under the posts for the try, again converted with ease by Lamaison, who was having difficulty transferring his execution of the conversions to similarly easy penalties.

Not once but twice Lamaison horribly failed to make proper contact with penalties which would normally have been meat and drink to the butcher's son, and with Dominguez slotting a third penalty of the half for Italy, France stayed ahead at the break, but within reach of a powerful, but slow Italian side.

Italy coach Brad Johnstone must have delivered a rocket of a half-time speech, as his side came out with a new energy, and nearly got their first try of the day as Perziano chased a kick down the right wing at high speed, only to be foiled by the positional play of Sadourny in the French try area.

Italy only had themselves to blame for wasting a golden chance of three points when awarded a penalty ten metres from the French line.  They took time to consider their options, and with the French only five points in front it seemed incomprehensible that anything other than a Dominguez penalty would be on the cards.

For some reason they decided to run the ball against the might of the French pack, and predictably their maul ground to a halt at the first hurdle, as Troncon took an age to make up his mind, and was swamped by the hungry French pack.

France broke straightaway with Italy at sixes and sevens in defence, and with a two man overlap Bernat-Salles broke to the Italy 22.  He shipped the ball to the usually reliable Magne, whose hands let him down with a try begging outside.  Troncon once again proved chief destructor by blatantly killing the ball right under the nose of the referee.  Lamaison struck over the easy penalty, but Troncon was a lucky man to not to find himself in the sin bin.

Dominguez kept Italy in contention with another penalty soon after, striking a fierce kick in to the wind, which just bobbled over the posts via the top of the crossbar, but it was France who were making all of the running as the game went on, with Italy struggling to string the passes together, and looking more disjointed with every minute the second half went on.

Lamaison proved that his first two penalty misses were no flukes by hooking another shot wide of the posts after 56 minutes -- albeit a long one, before striking the next one a moment later over for a 20-12 lead.

France thought that they had got their third try of the game when from a scrum Olivier Magne looked to have beaten the Italian back-row to a loose ball in the Italian try area to touch down, but after the linesman stepped in it was rightly judged to have came straight out of the front-row tunnel, with France wasting their next attempt at the scrum.

Les Bleus finally increased their lead when Lamaison squeezed in a tight penalty from the left hand touch line, and at only 11 points down Italy looked down and out, with virtually no imagination on the ball -- on the few occasions that they actually had it.

After a torrid and largely diluted comeback, scrum-half Troncon -- so often the engine of the Italy side was replaced by Juan Manuel Queirolo with 15 minutes to go in an attempt to revive the Italian challenge.

His first act was to dive in to a ruck and concede a foolish penalty which Lamaison missed, but Italy had a surprise up their sleeve.

With play in midfield Dominguez embarked on a horizontal run across his back line.  He laid off a deft inside ball to the suriging Manuel Dallan, who slotted through a firm grubber kick in to the French try area down the right flank, which Perziano scurried after and beat the retreating Frenchmen to for the try.

Dominguez slipped over in comical fashion as he struck the testing conversion from way out on the right wing, but the Roman wind somehow blew the ball between the posts and over the crossbar to set up a tighter finale than should have been at 23-19 down and ten minutes to go.

Lamaison missed yet another long penalty as a nervous French side -- still dominating proceedings by and large -- again failed to extend their lead.

Not for long though as debutant centre Sebastien Bonetti dived under the posts as Italy flew in to a ruck en masse near their own line.  With the ball flung inside there was virtually no opposition for Bonetti who touched down for Lamaison to convert for the 30-19 scoreline before referee Chris White brought the game to an end.

Not a convincing French performance by any stretch of the imagination, but a solid one none the less.

The Teams:

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 David Auradou, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Thomas Lombard, 13 Sebastien Bonetti, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Jean-Luc Sadourny
Reserves:  Serge Betsen Tchoua, Sylvain Marconnet
Unused:  Abdelatif Benazzi, Philippe Carbonneau, Fabrice Landreau, Gerald Merceron, David Bory

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi (c), 3 Tino Paoletti, 4 Wim Visser, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Carlo Checchinato, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Walter Pozzebon, 14 Massimiliano Perziano, 15 Cristian Stoica
Reserves:  Franco Properzi-Curti, Juan Manuel Queirolo
Unused:  David Dal Maso, Luca Martin, Carlo Caione, Giampiero De Carli, Andrea Scanavacca

Attendance:  24973
Referee:  White c.

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Sadourny J-L. 1, Bonetti S. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 3
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 3

Italy
Tries:  Perziano M. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 4