Antoine Dupont lived as much as expectations because the mercurial scrumhalf made his Six Nations comeback in model to steer France to a 43-0 crushing of Wales on this 12 months’s opening match of the event.
Dupont, who skipped final 12 months’s championship to arrange for the Olympic Rugby Sevens event, which France received, delivered a hat-trick of assists as Les Bleus handed their opponents their thirteenth consecutive Take a look at defeat.
France, who’ve solely received the Six Nations as soon as since Fabien Galthie took over 5 years in the past, prevailed with doubles by wingers Theo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey and different tries by Julien Marchand, Emilien Gailleton and Gregory Alldritt with Thomas Ramos scoring the remainder of the factors from the tee.
Subsequent weekend can be one other affair, nonetheless, with a visit to England whereas Wales journey to Italy.
“We tailored to the situations within the rain and managed to get the bonus level, and a pleasant factors common,” Galthie mentioned.
France encountered some stiff resistance early on however they broke the impasse when Dupont’s tremendous crossfield kick was collected by Attissogbe for the hosts’ first strive.
Bielle-Biarrey rapidly added one other as he touched down from Ramos’s remaining go after an extended possession spell had left the Welsh defence gasping for air.
Evan Lloyd was then sin-binned for a excessive deal with on Bielle-Biarrey.
One other Dupont second led to France’s third strive, with the scrumhalf drawing defenders to him earlier than throwing the ball large to Attissogbe, who grabbed his second of the night time with out a lot of an effort.
Dupont accomplished a trio of assists earlier than the interval with an extended go for Bielle-Biarrey, who prevented a deal with earlier than touching down once more.
It was then all about limiting the losses for Wales whereas Galthie had the posh to ship Dupont to the bench after 50 minutes with Nolan Le Garrec taking up at scrumhalf.
France scored their fifth strive by way of hook Marchand after a finely-executed lineout.
Romain Ntamack’s high-quality cross kick discovered centre Gailleton, who stepped inside a deal with so as to add a sixth.
Ntamack then picked up a yellow card for a shoulder-to-head deal with earlier than it turned purple following a evaluation, which means the flyhalf, again after lacking the World Cup and final 12 months’s championship by way of accidents, can be dominated out of at the least the following fixture in opposition to England in Twickenham.
Wales additionally completed with 14 males after Freddie Thomas was proven a yellow for a repetition of fouls and Alldritt dived in so as to add a seventh for good measure with France claiming their seventh win in a row in opposition to their opponents – the largest since their file 51-0 victory in 1998.
Wales captain Jac Morgan felt his facet weren’t disciplined sufficient.
He instructed ITV: “It was a tricky night time, clearly we’re upset with the outcome. Self-discipline in all probability allow us to down fairly a bit in that sport, and in opposition to a crew like France, they capitalise in your unwell self-discipline and your errors, and that’s what they did at the moment.”
© AAP
