France 35 Canada 3

France's skipper and scrumhalf Fabien Galthié led his team to victory over Canada at the Stade de France in Paris, with right-wing Vincent Clerc running in two second-half tries to round off a record 35-3 victory.

After leading 13-0 at the break, the home team never looked like losing in a steady Paris drizzle.

However, the second-half belonged to greenhorn right-wing Vincent Clerc, who scored two of Les Bleus' four tries after the break.  David Bory and Damien Traille got the other two.

Left-wing Bory, who scored the first try of the match, and his Montferrand team-mate Gerald Merceron, who played at flyhalf and kicked 13 points, must have put a smile on the face of coach Bernard Laporte, who re-called the duo after France's 30-10 win and 20-20 draw against South Africa and New Zealand in the past fortnight respectively.

The visitors had their fair share of possession, but they failed to produce the goods with the ball in had as the French defence was just too strong.

The Canadians started the game well, enjoying territorial advantage in the first five minutes, but they could not break the sturdy French defence.

The French, however, showed that they can attack when flanker Olivier Magne made a good break deep into the Canadian half before offloading to centre Damien Traille for a converted try as the home team surged even further ahead at 22-0.

But the denouement of the game belonged to Clerc, surely one of the more exciting young prospects in the world today, as he scored twice to put the result beyond any doubt.

For his first try, the speedy winger left his opposite number Fred Asselin for dead as he raced away from 30 metres out.

Merceron missed the conversion, but Asselin's day turned even more sour when Irish referee David McHugh showed him a yellow card for a high tackle on French centre Thomas Castaignede.

With the Canadian winger out of the way, Clerc touched down for his second try after a superb move that saw skipper Fabien Galthié, Traille and Castaignède handle the ball before the 21-year-old sprinted through for a converted try.

Canada's only points came from the boot of flyhalf Bobby Ross, who kicked a late penalty in his 50th cap for the Canucks.

The Teams:

France:  1 Jean-Jacques Crenca, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Fabien Pelous, 6 Serge Betsen Tchoua, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 9 Fabien Galthie (c), 10 Gerald Merceron, 11 Vincent Clerc, 12 Thomas Castaignede, 13 Damien Traille, 14 David Bory, 15 Nicolas Brusque
Reserves:  David Auradou, Xavier Garbajosa, Jean-Baptiste Rue, Sebastien Chabal, Francois Gelez, Sylvain Marconnet, Dimitri Yachvili

Canada:  1 Rod Snow, 2 Pat Dunkley, 3 John Thiel, 4 Mike James, 5 John Tait, 6 Ryan Banks, 7 Alan Charron, 8 Phil Murphy, 9 Morgan Williams, 10 Bobby Ross, 11 Fred Asselin, 12 John Cannon, 13 Nik Witkowski, 14 Sean Fauth, 15 Winston Stanley
Reserves:  Jamie Cudmore, Marco Di Girolomo, Ed Fairhurst, Mark Lawson, Kevin Tkachuk, Adam Van Staveren
Unused:  Jared Barker

Referee:  Mchugh d.

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Clerc V. 2, Bory D. 1, Traille D. 1
Conv:  Merceron G. 2, Traille D. 1
Pen K.:  Merceron G. 3

Canada
Pen K.:  Ross R.P. 1