French devoid of flair in Rome

By DAVID LLEWELLYN

Italy 19 France 30

Italy showed serious guts and grit, not to mention staying power, as they rattled a sadly lacklustre France at Rome's Stadio Flaminio.

Whether the performance will be enough to buy their coach, Brad Johnstone, a stay of execution is anyone's guess, but this side is beginning to take shape.

Everyone had expected a slaughter, but a timorous French team never managed to control affairs, although they did display flashes of pace. Italy, for their part, were not prepared to lie down and wave the French through. They battled, grimly at times, right to the bitter end, especially after hopes had been raised as the match raced to a compelling climax. The Azzurri seemed to be up against it everywhere. Not even the weather gods were on their side. The hoped-for heavy going did not materialise, instead an unseasonal and unexpected dose of sunshine turned the ground into a surface most perfectly suited to the French backs.

But at least the Italians were prepared to give it a go. The prop Andrea Lo Cicero is not the sort of man you want to run into anywhere, least of all when his perfectly muscled 16-stone frame is being propelled at high speed around the pitch. He was prominent in many of Italy's advances and tackled more than his share of Frenchmen. Aaron Persico, the blindside flanker, was up there with Lo Cicero in taking the ball up, and the forwards in general contributed immensely to the cause. But as courageous as the Italians were, their only reward for some early hard work was the first of Diego Dominguez's penalties. And after seeing off Italy's early, adrenalin-fuelled rush – the opening 12 or so minutes were spent pretty well all on French turf – the Tricolores moved smoothly up a gear.

There were one or two false darts for the line before Christophe Lamaison put in a delightful kick, so subtle that to call it a chip would be heresy. This was a French fry. The ball fell perfectly for Jean-Luc Sadourny. The 34-year-old fullback, who was called out of retirement to help solve an injury crisis, had a clear run of 10 metres to the line for a simple comeback try – the 14th of his distinguished 69-cap career.

Dominguez kept Italy in touch, but their defence was stretched at times and too often they were guilty of basic errors, spilling ball unnecessarily or knocking on crucial passes. France were not so foolish. And when Fabien Galthié broke clear at a scrum around his side's 10- metre line, drew some cover and then slipped the ball to Sadourny, they went further ahead. The full-back straightened up, put his foot on the gas, tugged more defenders out of alignment and opened up clear water for the right wing, Phillippe Bernat-Salles, who scorched away for the score.

Lamaison banged over his second conversion and really that should have been that. France had their solid platform, they were oozing confidence and class, and Italian heads were, momentarily at least, down. But a third Dominguez penalty and inexplicable misses by Lamaison left a thread for the Italians to cling to, and they came back strongly at the start of the second half, with the right wing, Massimiliano Perziano, causing panic behind French lines with a chip and chase. Sadourny just beat him to the ball.

Italy did not not let up and created other opportunities. If their scrum-half, Alessandro Troncon, had not made two glaring errors – one of judgement when he chose to try to batter his way over the line from close range but was easily repelled, and the second when he delayed his pass long enough to allow the French flankers to hit him and dispossess him – then it might have been a different story.

There was an exchange of penalties but France had had a let-off, not that they seemed to know it. There was an air of complacency to them and a marked lack of adventure. Instead of kicking for position at penalties they opted to go for goal. Lamaison landed just two of five further attempts. Bernat-Salles did give Denis Dallan some grief out on Italy's left with a couple of dangerous breaks courtesy of his dragster-like acceleration, but France could not get that decisive score. With time running out, Italy were looking desperate, conceding penalties as regularly as the Pope says prayers. But maybe one of them was for the noble Azzurri, because suddenly the match exploded into life.

Dominguez received the ball from the replacement scrum-half, Juan Manuel Queirolo (Troncon's calf injury let him down after 67 minutes), showed it temptingly to the French fringers, swivelled and fed Dallan, who had run up at an astute angle. He chipped, Perziano chased and won, Dominguez converted and France woke up. Upfield they went, Italy kicked away possession and a couple of phases later Sébastien Bonetti flopped over from close range and Lamaison converted.

Try: Perziano Tries: Sadourny, Bernat-Salles, Bonetti

Con: Dominguez Cons: Lamaison 3

Pens: Dominguez 4 Pens: Lamaison 3

Half-time: 9-14, Attendance: 42,000

Italy: C Stoica (Narbonne); M Perziano (Treviso), W Pozzebon (Treviso), M Dallan (Treviso), D Dallan (Treviso); D Dominguez (Stade Français), A Troncon (Montferrand); A Lo Cicero (Roma), A Moscardi (Treviso, capt), C Paoletti (La Rochelle), A Gritti (Treviso), W Visser (Treviso), A Persico (Viadana), C Checchinato (Treviso), M Bergamasco (Treviso). Replacements: F Properzi Curti (Treviso) for Paoletti, 46; J-M Queirolo (Viadana) for Troncon, 67.

France: J-L Sadourny (Colomiers); P Bernat-Salles (Biarritz), S Bonetti (Biarritz), T Lombard (Stade Français), C Dominici (Stade Français); C Lamaison (Agen), F Galthié (Colomiers); C Califano (Stade Toulouse), R Ibanez (Castres), P De Villiers (Stade Français), D Auradou (Stade Français), F Pelous (Toulouse, capt), C Moni (Stade Français), O Magne (Montferrand), C Juillet (Stade Français). Replacements: S Marconnet (Stade Francais) for Califano, 53; S Betsen (Biarritz) for Moni, h-t.

Referee: C White (Eng).

Six Nations points table