France hold off Puma fightback
French breathe sigh of relief after uncomfortable final half-hour
France recorded their first win of the November series on Saturday, beating Argentina 27-26 in Paris, but it was a close-run match, in which the visitors clawed their way back from 27-9 down in the final half-hour, and nearly pinched a famous victory.
The next time these two sides meet it will be the opening of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. If it again produces a close encounter with a thrilling finish, that will be a great way to set the World Cup in motion.
It is interesting that this is France's first victory over the Pumas in five outings and then it was by just one point.
Yet it was not all that polished a match, but it did have the electric genius of Christophe Dominici and those thrilling last 20 minutes as the Pumas took control in their search for another famous victory. They are not suave but they have made an effective art of being artisans. Traditionally the French are rugby's romantic artists but, Dominici apart and at time Pépito Elhorga, there was precious little of it at Stade de France and in fact may never be as they put their faith in a big flyhalf with two big centres outside of him. They created precious little.
But back to those thrilling last minutes that gave the match life - other than what Dominici gave it. It started with a penalty against Pépito Elhorga for holding on when France were sitting on a comfortable 27-9 lead. That became a penalty and a maul which the Pumas pushed at the try-line. Gonzalo Longo broke free and scored far out. Felipe Contepomi converted from far out. That took the score to 27-16 with 19 minutes to play.
At this stage France changes its front row and brought on Sylvain Marconnet and Dimitri Szarzewski, the glamorous hooker. Szarzewski did not last long. A double tackle - one of them high - did for him, and Raphaël Ibañez was brought back from retirement. He was not long on the field when he gave away a penalty for not rolling away at a tackle, and from a long way out Felipe Contepomi goaled a penalty. 27-19 with 11 minutes left.
Those 11 minutes belonged to the Pumas as the French were forced to defend for all their worth.
First Longo had a run, Hernán Senillosa broke and Manuel Contepomi chipped, but in desperation Marconnet got back to save.
Back came the Pumas on attack after attack through many phases till Felipe Contepomi chipped. The ball hit Florian Fritz's hand and went into the grateful arms of tall, striding fullback Juan Martín Hernández, who cut past Elhorga to score at the posts. Felipe Contepomi converted, and suddenly it was 27-26 and somewhere in that great stadium a trumpet played Amazing Grace.
It was an amazing score in a match which France so had in hand.
The Pumas attacked again but France won their line-out after a penalty and Traille was able to clear. The Pumas drove a maul ahead and got the ball back to Felipe Contepomi who dropped for goal but there was brave Serge Betsen to charge the kick down.(Betsen was on because Rémy Martín had left the field with a hand injury.)
The Pumas stayed attacking but Elvis Vermeulen won a vital turn-over and with just seconds left Juan Fernández Lobbe was penalised for going in the side. France kicked the penalty out, Lionel Nallet won the line-out at the front and passed the ball a long way back to Traille who knew that the time was up and hoofed the ball into the stand.
It was an absorbing end to a match which had not always been absorbing.
The Pumas scored first when dapper Federico Todeschini's metronomic boot kicked a penalty goal. Kicking penalty goals would play an important part in the match. The Pumas kicked four, the French two, but the French missed three - three that Yachvili should really have goaled.
Todeschini nudged over another before leaving the field in pain. Then Felipe Contepomi moved from inside centre to flyhalf.
But between the Todeschini nudges, Dominici scored a try. Play seemed to be going nowhere in particular, stuck somewhere on the Puma 10-metre line when Traille played back to Dominici who sped clean through and then skated on a bow past Hernández and over for a try, which made the score 7-3
Elhorga set up France's second try when he took a short pass and sliced through. A covering tackle by Ignacio Corleto mowed the Agen fullback down but France stayed attacking till Fritz barged over from close quarters. That made it 17-6. A penalty by Felipe Contepomi when Vermeulen collapsed a maul made the half-time score 17-9.
The third French try had a rare start. France won a tighthead at a scrum. That really is rare in the modern game. Vermeulen picked up and broke with Dominici close behind. The ball fell loose and Dominic snapped it up, burst clear and raced away for his second try. 24-9 just five minutes into the second half. Imagine Puma humiliation that they of all people, the gauchos of the bajada scrum, had yielded a tighthead.
When Martín Scelzo was penalised for a pretty bucolic late tackle, Yachvili goaled a penalty to make it 27-9 after 49 minutes. For the next half an hour France did not score a single point.
Sadly just before the end Felipe Contepomi was take off on a stretcher with, it seemed, serious damage to the ligaments of his left knee.
Man of the Match: Christophe Dominici. He was playing violins when the others were banging at guitars. Well, not quite all, for Felipe Contepomi had a splendid match.
Moment of the Match: Take your pick of three tries - two by Christophe Dominici and one by Juan Martín Hernández and probably the first one by Christophe Dominici deserves the award.
Villain: There were wonderful scenes after the whistle had gone to end each half. There were those little geniuses Agustín Pichot and Christophe Dominici walking off to the changing rooms with their arms around each other. After all they are club matches. Then at the end there were smiles all round and hugs and swapping jerseys. After all many of them are club matches. This match had something of brother against brother, team-mate against team-mate. But then 11 Pumas play in France.
That said there was an unpleasant sight as the owner of a hand found its way to the face of Julien Bonnaire and removed a contact lens. That was unwholesome.
The scorers:
For France:
Tries: Dominici 2, Fritz
Cons: Yachvili 3
Pens: Yachvili 2
For Argentina:
Tries: Longo, Hernandez
Cons: Contempomi 2
Pens: Todeschini 2, Contempomi 2
Teams:
France: 15 Pépito Elhorga, 14 Cédric Heymans, Christophe Dominici, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Christophe Dominici, 10 Damien Traille, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Elvis Vermeulen, 7 Rémy Martín, 6 Julien Bonnaire, 5 Loïc Jacquet, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Pieter de Villiers, 2 Raphaël Ibañez (captain), 1 Olivier Milloud.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Thibault Privat, 19 Serge Betsen, 20 Pierre Mignoni, 21 David Marty, 22 Aurélien Rougerie.
Argentina: 15 Juan Martín Hernández, 14 José Maria Núñez Piossek, 13 Manuel Contepomi, 12 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Ignacio Corleto, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Agustín Pichot (captain), 8 Gonzalo Longo, 7 Juan Fernández Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Ignacio Fernández Lobbe, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Martín Scelzo.
Replacements: 16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Esteban Lozada, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 20 Nicolás Fernández Miranda, 21 Hernán Senillosa, 22 Horacio Agulla.
Referee: Tony Spreadbury (England)
Touch judges: Wayne Barnes (England), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Television match official: David McHugh (Ireland)
Assessor: Dougie Kerr (Scotland)