French flayed by the boot of Jenkins

By TIM GLOVER

France 35 Wales 43

STADE DE FRANCE, PARIS - The French have a phrase for it and we are not talking sacre bleu. Two years ago Wales won an unreal match by 34-33 and yesterday they positively wallowed in the glorious feeling of déjà vu following an encounter that was utterly surreal.

Scoring 27 points in 29 minutes, Wales lit up the Paris match in an astonishing second half to triumph by four goals, three penalties and two drop goals to two goals and seven penalties.

With Neil Jenkins contributing 28 points, 10 of them in the last three minutes, Wales somehow managed the feat of recording back-to-back victories on French soil, the first Welsh side to do so since 1955.

They led 10-0 after 10 minutes, then 16-3 and it would have been a lot more but for a suicidal tendency to throw away, literally at times, in numerable try scoring chances.

It was always said that,unlike their wine, the French did not travel well but they could usually be relied upon, particularly in Paris in the springtime, to run riot.

But a modern phenomenon is that they are no longer comfortable at home. To make the whole thing even more bemusing, not to mention amusing, is that Wales, in their last two home games against France, lost 51-0 and 36-3.

The reputations, if not the futures of both coaches here, Bernard Laporte and Graham Henry, were on the line after lacklustre campaigns. Henry, acclaimed as the great redeemer two seasons ago, had won only five of his last 2 games but for all the French profligacy, Wales demonstrated that the belief in his methods, questioned by critics as never before, is alive andkicking.

As for Laporte, the great under achiever, the French Federation might well be tempted to show him the door.

To waste so many chances in almost-perfect conditions was criminal but Wales, with Scott Quinnell having an immense game, rode their luck and counter-attacked with devastating results.

They opened the second half with 17 points in six minutes, fell behind with 10 minutes remaining and then Jenkins applied the coup de grace in the breathtaking denoument. He passed 1,000 points for his country with a try, four conversions, three penalties and two drop goals. Monsieur Le Drop indeed.

When France sloped off at half time they might have thought they had been playing in Disneyland. Instead of leading by an avenue they were just 19-16 ahead.

The French had numerous opportunities and had squandered all but one. Their characteristic strengths of slick handling and passing deserted them and Wales could barley believe their good fortune.

France began well enough, Gerald Merceron making the best of a poor pass to splinter a wooden defence in the eighth minute and when he drew Rhys Williams, the stand-off slipped a scoring pass to Sebastien Bonetti and the centre went over at the posts.

A couple of minutes later Jean-Luc Sadourny led a breakout from deep in his own half and when play was switched to the right France had a six-man overlap. Typically it ended with Philippe Bernat-Salles being bundled into touch.

It would have been easier to score. When Merceron added a penalty to his conversion France were 10 points to the good. He added three more penalties before the interval, Jenkins replying with three.

Trailing 19-9, Wales struck a huge blow two minutes before the interval when Quinnell picked up at a scrum, burst on the blind side and committed the defence before releasing Robert Howley. The scrum half touched down near the French posts, beating Sadourny with a dummy.

Behind by only three points instead of 30, Wales went into overdrive. First Scott Gibbs made a break down the left and when the ball was recycled to the right, Mark Taylor delivered a sublime pass to Quinnell who went over unopposed. When Christophe Lamaison, who had come on for the injured Merceron, kicked a penalty it was 22-23 but then Jenkins dropped the first of his goals and almost immediately the Quinnell-Taylor partnership struck again.

This time Quinnell gave a lovely inside pass to Taylor and he in turn fed Dafydd James who cut inside to leave the French defence in tatters.

It was now 22-33 and the backlash began when Fabien Galthie combined brilliantly with Sadourny and the move ended with a terrific tryfor Bernat-Salles. When Lamaison added a penaltyto his conversion it was 32-33 and once again the forcewas with France. And once again they failed to finish off several sweeping movesalthough it was a tremendous tackle by Gareth Thomas that prevented Bonetti fromscoring what seemed to be a certain try.

In the 70th minute David Young, the Wales captain, was penalised for dragging down a scrum and Lamaison made no mistake with the kick: 35-33.

With two minutes remaining Jenkins added another drop goal, and in the first minute of injury time Bernat-Salles attempted chip out of defence, was buried by Thomas and James and the two wings exchanged passes before releasing, almost inevitably, Jenkins for a soft try. For Bernat-Salles and France it was the final pitulation.

Their heads went down and the awful truth dawned – this time there would be no way back. Jenkins, needless to say, milked the applause of a red sea of Welsh supporters and then dusted himself down to slot over the conversion from the touch line. France now needed to score twice to pull the match out of the fire.

Forget the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. For Jenkins the Stade de France must feel like home from home.

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