We are running out of ways to describe this. Another match in what used to be rugby’s most passionate cauldron, another dismantling, another humiliation.
France are good, really good, but we might as well have been in Paris, so loud was the travelling support, so gaping the rows of empty seats. The official attendance was just shy of 60,000. Maybe, but it looked and felt a good deal less than that.
More painful a statistic yet is the score. Another thumping defeat for Wales, maintaining their average of 50 points conceded in the past six Tests. France had their eight tries by the hour mark, before the game meandered towards its end. That Wales finished with a well-taken try, their second, by Mason Grady, put over by Louis Rees‑Zammit, will be of some comfort, as will a set piece that was rock solid. After their disciplinary horror show last weekend in Twickenham, Wales conceded far fewer penalties – and managed to play the whole game with 15 men. But a solid platform is the least of your requirements when taking on this lot.
“We were much better [than in the 40-point defeat against England last weekend] for large parts,” the Wales captain, Dewi Lake, said. “France are a team at the very top of the world. They can create things out of absolutely nothing. They scored some world-class tries today.”
France head into the Test against Italy in Lille next Sunday as the only team for whom a grand slam remains possible. And they are showing no signs of letting up, blooding more youngsters, each one seemingly as brilliant as the last. How Wales must envy such bottomless pools of talent.
The home side were trading on the exchanges at as much as 175-1 for the win, with the conventional bookies giving them a 35-point handicap. So no one was seriously expecting anything other than a heavy defeat.
If there had been any reason for Welsh hope, it might have been the removal of France’s centre pairing last week, the relatively experienced (insofar as neither is under 23) duo of Nicolas Depoortère and Yoram Moefana succumbing to injury along with their back-up, Kalvin Gourgues. In came the Pau centres, Émilien Gailleton (22 years old) and Fabien Brau-Boirie (20). Both scored within the first 15 minutes. France’s three-quarter line, in fact, are all under 23. Louis Bielle-Biarrey, incredibly, is only 22. He scored in-between his mates in the centre and the other three-quarter, Théo Attissogbe, would have completed the set in the first half-hour had he not been slightly offside when Antoine Dupont chipped ahead.
Never mind, France had the bonus point by the break, when Attissogbe sent Matthieu Jalibert away. Attissogbe had his try eight minutes into the second half and another just before the hour, France’s sixth and seventh, by which time the agony of this latest humiliation in Cardiff was deepening with every twist.
The first cut came within 90 seconds, when Gailleton was on hand to finish after delicious interplay between Dupont, Attissogbe and Charles Ollivon. Rugby looks so easy when played with such class by players so divinely gifted. Wales were nowhere near them.
Indeed, they were so far away from Bielle‑Biarrey when he caught Jalibert’s cross-kick in acres of space after 10 minutes, straight from a lineout, that one wonders what Shaun Edwards, defence coach of France these days and once of Wales during their pomp, must have thought of it. Bielle-Biarrey then stepped Lake with such ease down the left, you wondered if this were sport or choreographed performance. Jalibert looped round Oscar Jégou seconds later, and Brau‑Boirie was on his inside shoulder to receive the pass. The 20‑year‑old debutant looks class personified, already hailed as the next Yannick Jauzion, big and skilful. Later in the match he was joined in the centre by another debutant, Noah Nene, who is 6ft 4in and more than 100kg. On it goes.
1 France P2 W2 L0 Pts 10
2 Scotland P2 W1 L1 Pts 6
3 England P2 W1 L1 Pts 5
4 Italy P2 W1 L1 Pts 5
5 Ireland P2 W1 L1 Pts 4
6 Wales P2 W0 L2 Pts 0
Adam Beard, one of those solid technicians at the set piece, tried a spot of tactical kicking, which did not end well for him. Attissogbe gathered the scuffed chip and sent Jalibert away for the bonus point and a 26-7 lead at the break.
Wales had scored at the end of the first quarter, a tapped penalty by Lake, followed by a close-range score for Rhys Carré. It was almost a relief when France resorted to something as unseemly as close‑quarter rugby, Julien Marchand finishing a lineout and drive for their fifth just after the break.
Over to Attissogbe. Thomas Ramos’s overhead pass sent Bielle-Biarrey clear down the left, and he found Attissogbe in support for the sixth try. Then it was his turn to find himself at the end of a Jalibert cross-kick in acres of space. Ollivon completed France’s blitz with the eighth on the hour. The stadium looked even emptier then. These are dark times for Welsh rugby. It doesn’t help when France are burning so brightly in contrast.
