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