RUGBY: France 27 Australia 14 In the early hours of yesterday, over three hours after they had limped from the field, Australia finally got back to their Paris hotel while France continued to celebrate only their second win over the former world champions in eight years and contemplate what the next World Cup might bring.
While Australia are, at best, treading water, the Six Nations champions have added yet more steel to their game. Eddie Jones, Australia's coach, had called Saturday night's floodlit fixture a benchmark Test in his side's progress to the World Cup. After the second-half mauling dished out at the site of the 2007 final he talked of the changes he might make before his side meet Scotland next Saturday and England a week later.
The inspirational Matt Giteau seems certain to miss at least the Hampden Park game and possibly Twickenham, after damaging his knee. Jones has quality midfield reserves, but other, equally necessary changes, are more difficult.
The Australian front five were under huge pressure all game. The lineout just about held up but the scrum was often in disarray. Sylvain Marconnet did his usual job on Bill Young, but it was the pressure the stand-in loosehead prop Olivier Milloud exerted, and the methods Al Baxter used to withstand it, that interested Chris White, the English referee.
Baxter is a comparative novice at tighthead. The Bourgoin man is one of the most destructive scrummagers in Europe and because of him Australia suffered, struggling to hang on to their own put-in and often ending in such a mess that George Gregan was scrabbling at the base of the scrum.
"It's consistency," said a thoroughly dejected Jones. "We scrummed well for the first 40. In the second 40 we didn't follow that through. We went back to old habits.
"It comes down to the fundamentals under pressure. They are the best side in Europe and possibly the world at the moment and they played like it. Certainly we have to rethink what we are doing and rethink the personnel."
Jones must also be concerned at the stuttering performance of his captain. Gregan has signed to play through to 2007 but on Saturday he was indecisive and one of the smartest back divisions in world rugby suffered. Given decent service Stephen Larkham can still bemuse the tightest of defences and when Lote Tuqiri got the ball there was panic in an otherwise composed France defence.
However, the only time it got totally out of shape was when Gregan exchanged passes with Chris Latham in the 41st minute to open up a gap so large that even the flying Cedric Heymans could not catch the 31-year-old scrumhalf as he struggled 50 yards to the line.
France's tries came in the 10th and 44th minutes of the first half. Jean-Baptiste Elissalde created the first with a 30-yard cut-out pass, allowing Nicolas Brusque in at the left corner, and the second with a flick of no more than five feet that sent Frederic Michalak down the blind side and into the right corner.
The Toulouse scrumhalf then added five second-half penalties as France, and in particular their remarkable back row, put Australia under intolerable pressure. "The plan was to get up and shut them down quickly," said Tony Marsh. He and Olivier Magne both had remarkable games considering how infrequently they both play for their club, Clermont Auverge.
Magne came close to joining Saracens last season and Marsh was tempted to join Gloucester before re-signing, the New Zealander admits, for "non-rugby reasons; the wrong reasons."
"It's really encouraging since we haven't really been together for eight months," said David Ellis, the Yorkshire coach who runs the France defence. "Only our kicking game wasn't so good but, as I said to the guys after the game, it looked as though we were kicking the ball away because we wanted to defend some more."
FRANCE: Brusque; Rougerie, Marsh, Jauzion, Heymans (Dominici, 78); Michalak (Peyrelongue, 78), Elissalde; Milloud, Servat (Bruno, 61), Marconnet; Pelous (capt), Thion; Betsen, Magne (Bonnaire, 78), Harinordoquy.
AUSTRALIA: Latham (Rogers, 74); Rathbone (Sailor, 68), Mortlock, Giteau (Flatley, 42), Tuqiri; Larkham, Gregan (capt.); Young (Dunning, 71), Paul, Baxter; Harrison, Vickerman; Smith, Waugh (Lyons, 72), Roe.
Referee: C White (England).
