France 41 Australia 17
Two tries from the flying wing Damian Penaud helped the World Cup hosts France complete their preparations for the tournament with a 41-17 victory over Australia, the Wallabies’ fifth successive defeat.
It was the kind of statement the French would have been hoping to make less than a fortnight before they kick off the World Cup against the All Blacks at the same Stade de France venue, although they outscored the youthful Australia team by only four tries to three.
The boot of fullback Thomas Ramos made an emphatic contribution with 16 points, condemning Australia to another loss under Eddie Jones.
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Jonathan Danty and Gabin Villière scored France’s other tries while Mark Nawaqanitawase, Fraser McReight and Suliasi Vunivalu were the Australia try scorers.
Sunday’s Test concluded a busy month of warm-up matches that have set up an intriguing tournament that runs from September 8th to October 28th.
France were on the board after seven minutes with a slick move off the lineout as Thibaud Flament’s catch was swiftly passed down to Antoine Dupont to whip it over to Danty, who burst through three tacklers to go over for a try that looked well-rehearsed on the training pitch.
Within six minutes, however, Australia hit back as they sucked in the French defence and then swung the ball wide for Nawaqanitawase to go over in the corner.
Australia errors allowed Ramos to send over a steady stream of penalties and be 16-5 up at half-time as the Wallabies outhalf Carter Gordon missed three first-half kicks. It took 16 minutes into the second before France scored a second try with Dupont’s clever cross kick falling perfectly for Penaud to dot down and open up a 26-5 lead.
But the Australians threatened to get themselves back into the game as McReight burst through the defence to dive under the post for their second try, in the 61st minute, after Nawaqanitawase had caught a high ball to set up the opportunity.
Three minutes later France had their third try with Matthieu Jalibert’s short kick to the corner sitting up for winger Villière to score. Penaud then showed his class as turnover ball, following one of numerous Wallaby handling errors, allowed him to chip ahead, sprint past the defence and collect for a classy score – his 29th test try.
France put the cherry on top with a long range penalty from Melvyn Jaminet marking the end of the game and taking them past 40 points. – Guardian
