France players celebrate after defeating Wales in their Six Nations clash. Photo / AP
France 13
Wales 9
Panache and patience, brutality and brilliance, savvy and strength. This is a special France team and it contains multitudes, and how they needed them. With fluency difficult on a tense Friday night against a ferociously defiant Wales effort, France needed to fight.
Grand Slams are not supposed to come easy, but few would deny that this crop of Les Bleus deserves their chance to end a 12-year drought next weekend. To look wider than the Six Nations context, a scarier proposition is how good they could be by the time they host the World Cup. Because they will have learned a great deal from an imperfect night at the Principality Stadium on which Wales, led by Dan Biggar, Taulupe Faletau and Will Rowlands, pushed them hard.
France were sublime in patches at Murrayfield a fortnight ago. Overall, they had seemed to be the dominant outfit in this Six Nations. And yet, their promise over the past two Championships had not come to fruition with a clean sweep – or even a title victory. In 2020, Mohamed Haouas was sent off for a straight right hand that rearranged Jamie Ritchie's nose. A year later, England overturned them before Scotland pulled off a Paris smash-and-grab.
This always felt like a slippery red banana skin on the final bend of a possible chelem. Wales characteristically grow tighter and gradually improve throughout these tournaments. Faletau had been phenomenal at Twickenham against England. Elsewhere in the back row, Josh Navidi, one of the toughest grapple-tacklers and carriers around, was back for his first Test since a tour de force in Paris 12 months previously.
The numbers and sound of France's travelling support were impressive and loud cheers saluted the name of Antoine Dupont when it was read out before kick-off. The magnificent scrum-half earned the first points with a moment of customary quality. Darting from a ruck close to the halfway line, he sucked in two Wales forwards before lifting an offload to Paul Willemse. Ryan Elias tackled the hulking lock but could not roll away.
Although Biggar levelled after some careless obstruction from France, a sweeping move finished by Anthony Jelonch put France 10-3 ahead in the 10th minute. Fabien Galthié's side, however, would not add to their tally until the second period. That was not for want of trying. Gabin Villière roamed off his wing to slice through Wales from a scrum. One offloading exchange between Dupont and Jelonch to release Yoram Moefana was mesmeric.
Wales stayed in the scrap, as expected. They have been labelled, in the kindest sense possible, as a dog-dirt team. Just try scraping them off your shoe. For all their attacking flamboyance, the foundation of France's success has been an unfussy kicking game and disruptive defence. The former malfunctioned a couple of times, first with Romain Ntamack taking a quick throw to himself and clearing to touch after inadvertently crossing his own 22. Melvyn Jaminet then sent one strike scudding over the dead-ball line.
Those errors gave Wales inches and Biggar, who revels in the underdog role as much as any individual in the sport, kicked two further penalties to keep Wales close. Fittingly, a pair of jackal turnovers presented France with a foothold in the second half. Villière and Alldritt, fantastic breakdown defenders in different ways, swooped to end Welsh forays.
Still, Wayne Pivac's team refused to buckle. Biggar stooped low to tackle Jonathan Danty on the hour-mark before spearing a kick-pass across to Faletau. Jonathan Davies could not hold on to the inside pass and Dupont, of course, intercepted. The next time Wales pressed, Alldritt swooped over Faletau to steal. His earlier fumbles were long forgotten.
As if to accentuate that this would be a coming-of-age occasion, Alldritt made way gingerly with 15 minutes to play. France would have to edge over the line for a fourth victory without a star man. Just as well that they have a galaxy of them. When Rowlands charged with four minutes left, Danty's jackal just about snuffed out Wales.