France brought to an end a five-match winless streak with a 28-13 victory over Argentina at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille on Saturday.
Argentina, meanwhile, have suffered their fourth successive defeat and will be desperate to reverse their downward spiral, just as France did here.
However, it was Argentina who got off the best possible start when they seized on a loose ball and quickly went on the attack to Jeronimo De La Fuente, who got the offload away for Ramiro Moyano to cut inside off his wing under the posts. Nicolas Sanchez added the extras for a 7-0 lead with just two minutes gone.
Baptiste Serin cut the deficit to four with a seventh-minute penalty after Argentina were penalised at the scrum. But Sanchez stretched the lead back to seven with a penalty after the French infringed at the breakdown.
In the 27th minute, the hosts eventually scored their first try. It came after good work in the build up by Yoann Huget to wriggle through a gap. The ball was recycled, with good hands freeing Teddy Thomas for the finish in the right-hand corner.
Five minutes later, Serin gave France the lead for the very first time with a well-struck three pointer and they would hold on to that slender 11-10 margin until the sides headed into the interval.
The Pumas wrestled the lead back five minutes into the second-half via a Sanchez penalty after Les Bleus had been penalised for going off their feet at the breakdown.
But soon afterwards, France regained the lead and it was made by Gael Fickou, who scythed his way through the Argentine defensive line before feeding Thomas with the long pass out to the right-hand touchline for an easy finish as the winger grabbed his brace. Serin converted for an 18-13 lead with 49 minutes gone.
No scoring would occur until the 67th minute when Serin gave Les Bleus an eight-point lead with another successful penalty attempt.
France were then handed a gift after Tomas Lezana spilt a ball from a five-metre line-out on the Argentine try-line, only for Les Bleus skipper Guilhem Guirado to gleefully accept the gift and dive over, Serin converting for an unassailable 28-13 lead, which they would hold on to until the final whistle.
The scorers:
For France:
Tries: Thomas 2, Guirado
Cons: Serin 2
Pens: Serin 3
For Argentina:
Try: Moyano
Con: Sanchez
Pens: Sanchez 2
France: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Gael Fickou, 11 Yoann Huget, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Artur Iturria, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Yoan Maestri, 4 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 3 Cedate Gomes Sa, 2 Guilhem Guirado (c), 1 Jefferson Poirot
Replacements: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Dany Priso, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Paul Gabrillagues, 20 Mathieu Babillot, 21 Antoine Dupont, 22 Anthony Belleau, 23 Benjamin Fall
Argentina: 15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Jeronimo De La Fuente, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Guido Petti, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matias Alemanno, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Augustin Creevy, 1 Santiago Garcia Botta
Replacements: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 18 Lucio Sordoni, 19 Mariano Galarza, 20 Rodrigo Bruni, 21 Tomas Lezana, 22 Tomas Cubelli, 23 Matias Moroni
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Matthew Carley (England), Ian Davies (Wales)
TMO: David Grashoff (England)
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