France 13 Australia 18:AFTER A raw night in Paris there was more cold comfort for European rugby. By next Saturday evening the visiting Tri-Nations teams may well be celebrating 11 victories from 11 games on their November tours and the Northern-Hemisphere game will be soul-searching through the long tunnel of winter.
France were crestfallen on Saturday night. Just as missed kicks robbed Scotland of a priceless win over the Springboks a week earlier, David Skrela failed with five of his six penalties. Last month the Toulouse outhalf's nerveless kick in the last minute gave his club a Heineken Cup win over Bath. On Saturday night the unforgiving Parisian crowd let rip their frustration at Skrela who, by the time he was shown a yellow card five minutes from time for a high tackle on Digby Ioane, was probably relieved just to get off the pitch.
"I put a comforting arm around David Skrela. I don't blame him," said France's coach, Marc Lievremont. But two of those penalty chances came late in the game when France, who had recovered from 10 points down, were laying siege to the Wallaby line and threatening through a massive effort from their pack to turn the game around.
Instead the Australia wing Peter Hynes scored a try from a rare attack and Matt Giteau's late penalty kept the French at arm's length for the Wallabies' first win in Paris since 2000, when they triumphed here by the same score.
Australia, who can actually make it 12 wins out of 12 if beating the Barbarians at Wembley on December 3rd is counted, were breathing sighs of relief as they flew to Cardiff yesterday to prepare for Saturday's meeting with Wales. Their scrum, where the young loosehead prop Ben Alexander was given a difficult 65 minutes by Lionel Faure, creaked and they had to cope with losing the centre Ryan Cross with gastroenteritis hours before kick-off.
"His father had flown over from Australia to see his son play and they both ended up watching the match on TV at the hotel," said the Wallabies' coach, Robbie Deans. "We have a lack of depth at centre but we showed composure tonight and the way we have adapted to adversity has been really satisfying."
Australia's backs were further disrupted near the end when Adam Ashley-Cooper, who had moved to centre from fullback when Cross dropped out, had to leave the field with a hip injury that makes him a doubt for Cardiff. It is up front, though, where the Wallabies have prospered and the muscular efforts of Nathan Sharpe and Stephen Moore, who burrowed over for an early try, kept them in the game.
As Australia were boarding their flight to Cardiff, the gloom was still weighing on the French team.
"I haven't studied the game on video. Some people will say it's a professional foul but I had a few beers instead. When I woke up we were still the losers and on top of that I have a headache," Lievremont said yesterday.
Emile Ntamack, his assistant in charge of the backline, was less downcast, arguing that the scoreline owed a lot to Skrela's misses.
"If we had slotted two more penalties we would have won . . . we proved we could hurt one of the best teams in the world," he said.
Deans admitted his team's performance had been far from perfect but stated it was the Wallabies who won the game not the French who lost it.
Guardian Service
FRANCE:Medard; Malzieu, Jauzion, Baby, Heymans; Skrela, Tillous-Borde; Faure, Szarzewski, Mas, Chabal, Nallet, Dusautoir, Ouedraogo, Harinordoquy. Replacements: Palisson for Malzieu (78), Traille for Baby (35), Tomas for Tillous-Borde (77), Kayser for Szarzewski (56), Lecouls for Mas (58), Millo-Chulski for Nallet (42), Picamoles for Dusautoir (69). Sin Bin: Skrela (75).
AUSTRALIA:Ashley-Cooper; Hynes, Cross, Mortlock, Mitchell; Giteau, Burgess; Alexander, Moore, Baxter, McMeniman, Sharpe, Mumm, Smith, Palu. Replacements: Cooper for Ashley-Cooper (75), Kepu for Burgess (64), Cordingley for Alexander (65), Chisholm for Palu (59). Not used: Polota-Nau, Pocock, Ioane.
Referee:Craig Joubert (South Africa).
