From our special correspondent in Lille,
The French XV barely beat an eye-catching and playful Uruguay team on Thursday evening in Lille (27-12). The main thing is safe, but the Blues gave us a scare.
Drafts
It may already be nostalgia for the opening match but the Blues have once again decided to start the match in reverse, pushing the vice to the point of conceding the exact copy of New Zealand’s first try – a game at the foot behind the defense concluded on the wing (3-5, 6th). A simple setback, we thought, when Hastoy put the Blues back in front (13-5, 11th). But French territorial domination was not going to materialize on the scoreboard. Three explanations for this: a frustrating inability to carry the balls once in the opposing 22, the yellow card of Taofifenua (whose elbow could have been worth more) and the enormous heart of this South American team.
Bluffing Uruguay
The evening’s opponent was nothing like a foil. We knew that the Uruguayans would give no favors and leave all their forces in the battle, but they did much more than that. This team has some great rugby players, like fly-half Etcheverry and especially full-back Amaya. The latter had fun several times through the porous French defense, obtaining a just reward in the second half (13-12, 56th). At that moment, the disappointment of seeing the Blues fail to break away transformed into a real fear of seeing this match go the wrong way.
Still work for the Blues
With twelve new players brought in for this match, the staff imagined that it would not be a walk in the park. But these Blues, even inexperienced at this level, should have shown more mastery. Etcheverry still had to be blocked by his own teammate and Mauvaka took advantage of the gift for us to start breathing (20-12, 55th), before Bielle-Biarrey widened the gap (27- 12, 73e). Fourteen penalties conceded and no offensive bonus, that was certainly not Fabien Galthié’s original idea. The coming week will perhaps be even more studious than expected before Namibia next Thursday.