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