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Australia defeat France 18-13 at Stade de France in Paris
November 23, 2008 AUSTRALIA overcame a wretched build-up and a dogged France team to maintain an unbeaten record on their European tour with a nail-biting victory in Paris.
For the second week in a row, the Wallabies rallied from a second-half deficit to squeeze out an 18-13 win at Stade de France.
It was Australia's first triumph over Les Bleus on enemy territory in eight years and also gave the Wallabies their first back-to-back spring tour wins over England and France in a decade.
But they certainly did it the hard way and needed a dreadful goalkicking performance from French flyhalf David Skrela to avoid defeat.
Skrela missed five shots at penalty goal - including two in the tense final 10 minutes that would have put France in front - as well as being off target with a simple drop goal attempt from in front in the first half.
Skrela then completed a nightmare match in the sin bin after being yellow-carded for a high tackle on Wallabies winger Digby Ioane, one of the stars for Australia after being called on to start just three hours before kick-off when Ryan Cross was ruled out with a nasty virus.
With Cross out, Wallabies coach Robbie Deans was forced to reshuffle his backline, moving Adam Ashley-Cooper to outside centre, with Drew Mitchell going to full-back and Ioane starting on the left wing.
After falling behind 13-10 in the 52nd minute following a rare Skrela penalty, the Wallabies regained the lead through a try to winger Peter Hynes five minutes later, after some good hands from five-eighth Matt Giteau and skipper Stirling Mortlock.
Despite some hairy moments, the Wallabies then hung on for another spirited win.
Half-back Luke Burgess, who was laid low with the flu during the week, came in for some particularly torrid treatment early as the French forwards threw everything into the opening exchanges.
If not for Skrela's wayward kicking, France could have established quite a useful lead in the first half.
After finally building some momentum, Australia opened the scoring with a Giteau penalty goal in the 29th minute.
Seemingly gaining the ascendancy, Australia increased their advantage to 10-0 when Stephen Moore charged over two minutes later, the hooker's one-handed putdown completing some patient and well-constructed phase play from the Wallabies.
But just as the intensity dropped in the few minutes before halftime last week against England, the Wallabies again appeared to lose focus as the break loomed.
The pressure told when a wild pass from Burgess sailed way over Giteau's head and then over the Australian deadball line, leading to a 5m scrum for France.
The French forwards drove the Australian pack backwards before South African referee Craig Jourbert awarded the home team a penalty try, presumably for the Wallabies deliberately bringing down the scrum.
The crowd was in raptures when Skrela slotted the conversion from in front to leave France trailing by just three points at the interval.
The French drew level seven minutes into the second half through Skrela's second and final penalty goal before full-back Maxime Medard raised the roof at Stade de France with a left-footed drop goal from close to halfway.
Jourbert was initially unsure whether the shot had the legs but, after several video checks, the third match official awarded three points to France, giving the hosts a 13-10 lead in the 52nd minute.
But the Wallabies dug deep and ultimately got home through Hynes's try five minutes later.
AAP
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html
The Wallabies defeat France 18-13 in Paris
November 23, 2008 - 6:57am
Story by: ARU
The Qantas Wallabies have beaten France in France for the first time since 2000 with a hard fought 18-13 win over Les Bleus in Paris on Saturday night (Sunday morning AEDT).
In doing so the Men of Gold have won three games in a row on their end of season tour for the first time in the professional era.
And the Wallabies had to overcome a considerable setback to come out on top of the desperate French XV.
The Men of Gold were disrupted just before kick off with outside centre Ryan Cross ruled out which saw fulback Adam Ashley-Cooper move to outside centre, Drew Mitchell drop to fullback, Digby Ioane come off the bench on to the left wing and Lote Tuqiri in to the reserves for the first time on tour.
The Wallabies were almost behind after just two minutes when scrumhalf Luke Burgess was penalized for holding on, giving France flyhalf David Skrela a chance at goal but the Frenchmen shaved the outside of the post with the very kickable attempt from thirty-five metres, almost in front.
It was the start of a horror night with the boot for the French No.10.
The Men of Gold looked threatening soon after putting numerous phases together in the French 22 but again Burgess was dispossessed, this time by French lock Sebastien Chabal.
Skrela was again off his aim on eight minutes with a drop goal attempt literally ten metres out underneath the posts.
George Smith was running foul of South African referee Craig Joubert, pinged for coming in at the side twice in the first 12 minutes.
The match had a helter-skelter quality in the first fifteen minutes with both sides making mistakes but there was a sense that if the Wallabies could settle first, the match was there to be won.
The big match atmosphere and very cold conditions were proving a combination both team could not master.
On 20 minutes another breakdown penalty against the desperate French gave captain Stirling Mortlock a shot at goal from just on halfway but this time it was the Wallaby marksman who was just wide.
On 24 minutes some good lineout ball saw Ioane split the French defence with a powerful 40 metre burst but just as the Wallabies looked set to score the home team again turned the ball over with urgent counter-rucking.
Matt Giteau then had a chance to open the scoring with another breakdown penalty against France on their 22 and the Wallabies flyhalf, with an 86% success rate in kicks at goal in Tests this season, made no mistake. Australia leading 3-0 after nearly half an hour.
The Wallabies were further ahead just a minute later after the French were penalized for an unlucky offside when they themselves were looking threatening.
the rest here...http://rugby.com.au/news/wallabies_2.../section/21893
Full time Score
Qantas Wallabies 18 (Stephen Moore, Peter Hynes tries; Matt Giteau 2 penalties, conversion) defeated France 13 (Penalty try; David Skrela conversion, penalty goal; Maxime Medard drop goal) at Stade Francais in Paris.
Last edited by laura; 23-11-08 at 09:20.
Aus lucky if the French kicker was on form he could have been a different story- Ten's commentary was hilarious - we are still trying to figure out who Brian Cross, Stephen Taylor were ?
Foxsports commentary was better Kaffer was going off his nut with the ref with some justification.
61 years between Grand SlamsWas the wait worth it - Ya betta baby
I have made my impression of the game on two other threads,
A) The forwards lacked intesity and looked flat, baxter back to his usual crappy self and no-one seemed too committed to the breakdown unlike the french who were ripping it up....
http://twf.com.au/showthread.php?p=175259#post175259 (post #2)
B) Burgess looked rusty but i contribute some of his woes to the failing forward pack...
http://twf.com.au/showthread.php?p=175258#post175258 (post #10)
We won ugly, but we won...But i wouldn't be too thrilled with the win, especially when the Welsh are looming on the horizon...
Proudly bought to you by a brewery somewhere....
I hope that the IRB review the match and throw out the referee for a couple of months for completely destroying a test match.
We were lucky to come away with the win.
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
How did Adam Ashley-Cooper go at outside centre? I know i bag him as a fullback but i do rate him in the centres or wing.
Started watching the league final last nite thru to the allblacks game and managed to fall asleep right b4 kickoff for the wallabies game.
Replay in 20 minutes!![]()
Well done Wallabies, but it was a rubbish game to watch. Congratulations to the ref for killing the game dead for both teams.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill
they said cross was ruled out and then they were in the middle of saying why then they kept commentating
BOKKE“Let me put it this way, A Springbok team contains Afrikaners, Englishmen, coloureds and blacks. It has parochial foes in Bulls, Sharks, Stormers, Cheetahs and Lions. It is a recipe for war! Yet in all the years of John Smit’s captaincy, there has never been one unhappy customer, not one voice of rebellion against his leadership. He is the glue that holds the Springboks together. The man is a legend!”- Jake White
just watched the replay on FOX, firstly a wins a wins and 3 in a row is no mean feat, but my main concern once again was burgess at scum half his first half was woeful at best, the referee turned the game in to a kicking contest after penalizing both attacking and defending sides at the breakdown, great ball handling from giteau and mortlock for the hynes try......
I woke up bright and early for this and it put me back to sleep about 15 mins in
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Burgess had a SHOCKER! He should have come off earlier. It was just terrible. I even cheered when Cordingly ran on, which made me think I was sick or something. I never get excited about GrandpaCords. Shows how bad I though Burgess was. He just wasn't fast enough and the french were too quick for him!
Drew was pretty good at FB![]()
Digby was pretty BAD! He seemed to be everywhere but he never striked me as doing anything really exciting. Meh. Beats Lote. Best thing I can say about Digby playing at 11 is that Lote isn't therehehehehehehehe
We were DESTROYED at the breakdown. Whatever we were doing it wasn't according to Joubert's rules. I think Bam should have come on at some stage in the proceedings, just for a set of fresh legs incase HE would do it right at the breakdown... Dunno.
Overall, not really fun to watch for me. But more fun that it was for a Froggie![]()
3 from 3 in Europe... Not bad
A kick in this game is like a rather nasty alcoholic shooter, only as good as it's chaser...
Courtesy of quality South African commentry