France 77 Fiji 10

Eight second-half tries tries for France helped them annihilate a disorganised Fiji team 77-10 in Saint-Etienne on Saturday, having led 29-0 at the break.

By inflicting Fiji's worst ever Test defeat, France have made it three wins out of three games against southern hemisphere opposition in their 2001 end-of-year Tests, having beaten South Africa and Australia in previous weeks.

The French scored 12 tries in total, to the Fijians' one, with recalled winger Christophe Dominici, flank Serge Betsen and Aurelien Rougerie grabbing two each.

The one way traffic was temporarily interrupted in the sixth minute of the second half when stand-off Nicky Little slotted over a penalty to reduce the deficit to 41-3.

The French were scoring at will and with just 10 minutes gone in the second period Dominici ran in his second try after a flowing back move which Merceron converted.

Fiji finally broke the French defence when Fero Lasagavibau burst past Galthie's tackle and ran it in for a try which the sure boot of Little converted to make it 55-10.

But it took France all of 10 minutes to open the scoring when Betsen scored his first try after persistent pressure by the home team.

Although the Fijians put together some nice flowing moves, they were let down by poor handling once they got close to the French line.

The Teams:

France:  1 Jean-Jacques Crenca, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 David Auradou, 5 Thibault Privat, 6 Serge Betsen Tchoua, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Patrick Tabacco, 9 Fabien Galthie (c), 10 Gerald Merceron, 11 David Bory, 12 Tony Marsh, 13 Damien Traille, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Clement Poitreneaud
Reserves:  Yannick Bru, Aurelien Rougerie, Sebastien Chabal, Nicolas Jeanjean, Frederic Michalak, Lionel Nallet, Jean-Baptiste Poux

Fiji:  1 Billy Cavubati, 2 Paula Biu, 3 Henry Qiodravu, 4 XDO3, 5 Emori Katalau, 6 XDA4, 7 Alifereti Doviverata, 8 Jope Tuikabe, 9 Sami Rabaka Nasagavesi, 10 Nicky Little, 11 Vilimoni Delasau, 12 Ilai Derenalagi, 13 Viliame Satala, 14 Marika Vunibaka, 15 Waisale Serevi
Reserves:  XKO7, Fero Lasagavibau, XNA29, Ilaitia Tuisese, Jonetani Waqa

Attendance:  33390
Referee:  Lawrence m.

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Betsen Tchoua S. 2, Galthie F. 1, Magne O. 1, Rougerie A. 2, Bory D. 1, Dominici C. 2, Jeanjean N. 1, Poux J-B. 1, Poitreneaud C. 1
Conv:  Merceron G. 7
Pen K.:  Merceron G. 1

Fiji
Tries:  Lasagavibau F.T. 1
Conv:  Little N.T. 1
Pen K.:  Little N.T. 1