Without trembling against weak opposition, the Blues won 60-7 on the pitch at Groupama Stadium without reporting any injuries. A perfect evening before a quarter-final at the top, perhaps against South Africa.
In order to guarantee a certain fairness, in the round ball version of the World Cup, the last matches of each group take place on the same day, at the same time and therefore, not at the same place. The oval does not hear it that way who, certainly to please televisions around the world, opts for offbeat meetings. At the same time, we are not going to make a big deal out of it either, at least as far as Pool A is concerned, as the verdict left only a theoretical ambiguity to say the least. Arriving on the green lawn of Groupama Stadium, the Blues and Whites knew the score of New Zealand-Uruguay, played the day before. A match where, to everyone’s surprise (but no, we’re kidding) the team at the fougère had signed one of these umpteenth victories so overwhelming (73-0) since the start of the event, that by dint of bare spectacles dramaturgy, we found ourselves yawning before the final whistle.
With the Blacks at the top of the standings, at 15 points – but defeated in the opening match on September 8 – the Blues were not really learning anything new: they had to beat Italy (or draw, or lose with points). offensive and defensive bonuses, or artificially trigger a new typhoon in the Rhône-Alpes region, like the one in Japan in 2019, which deprived Sergio Parisse’s Italy of a final match… against New Zealand – the loop is completed) to eliminate their evening opponent and thus overcome, in pole position, the final obstacle separating them from a quarter-final which, since the group draw, seemed promised to them. What Grégory Alldritt called entering “to the heart of the matter”. And what was said was done.
A promising Bordeaux vintage
Ridiculed a week earlier by New Zealand, we could well imagine that Italy would want to go down with the honors. But once again, a gulf separated the two teams, France taking its opponent by the throat from the outset and almost never loosening the grip. At 60-7 including tax (and 31-0 at half-time), the result precisely sums up the overwhelming domination of a team which only needed around twenty minutes to fold the affair by registering on the wings the first three of his eight tries. Superior in all sectors, against the prodigiously undisciplined Italians (sixteen faults), who took almost half an hour to (badly) negotiate a first attack ball, when they did not crash into an intractable defense , France therefore fulfilled its contract by achieving a flawless performance in the group stage with four victories in as many appearances.
From the last vintage from Lyon, moreover, we will have to remember the pre-eminence of a Bordeaux vintage providing talent, instead of the usual Toulouse hegemony. Scrutinized carefully, the hinge composed of Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert (author of several cutting initiatives, with an essay in passing) confirmed that it could – hypothetically awaiting the return of Saint-Dupont – duplicate in the national selection the performance in Top 14 to which she accustoms her supporters. Called up at the last hour, the young winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey continued to score points literally (five – which makes him turn in six appearances at almost an average of one try per match) and figuratively (by multiplying the initiatives).
Gala
While, returning with nineteen minutes to go, Yoram Moefana recalled what was meant by the word “finisher”, dear to Fabien Galthié, by registering the last two tries to add to the score. That plus two new dives into the goal of the untenable Damian Penaud, Bordeaux rookie of the 2023/24 season – which brings his total in blue to thirty-five tries and makes him the second best scorer in the history of the French international rugby, now on the heels of Serge Blanco – and we understand the ecstasy of the public who, anxious to honor the “city of lights” which is theirs, turned on their mobile phones at the start and end of the match, while respecting the victorious ritual of singing Gala’s “Freed from Desire”. Just like the (gala) evening was.
Now it’s time for serious things, so to speak, with the “real” World Cup now starting in a week, on October 15, in the quarter-final, undoubtedly against South Africa at the Stade de France. Where, even by a single point, a victory would definitively validate the potential of a French XV, until further notice, fully in control of its subject. Otherwise his destiny.