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Italians fed to the French in Rome by Dupont

By PA
(Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)

France scored seven tries to start their Guinness Six Nations campaign with a comprehensive 50-10 victory over Italy in Rome.

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Dylan Cretin, Gael Fickou, Arthur Vincent, Brice Dulin and Antoine Dupont crossed for Les Bleus before Teddy Thomas claimed a second-half double.

Outside-half Matthieu Jalibert kicked 15 points as Italy suffered a 28th consecutive Six Nations defeat.

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The Azzurri managed a late consolation try from Luca Sperandio, with Paolo Garbisi adding a conversion to his first-half penalty.

France opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Thomas’ elusive running set up an attack which ended with flanker Cretin driving over for his first Test try.

Jalibert added the conversion and then kicked a 35-metre penalty to give France a 10-0 lead after 11 minutes.

Italy were adventurous in possession and built up a head of steam for Garbisi to reduce the deficit with a 20-metre penalty.

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But the Azzurri’s naivety was twice exposed by scrum-half Dupont, the player of the 2020 Six Nations tournament.

Dupont’s clever 27th-minute chip allowed Fickou to claim the simplest of scores and Jalibert added the extras.

Three minutes later Dupont hacked on a loose ball and the bounce favoured winger Gabin Villiere to collect.

Dupont was on Villiere’s shoulder to collect and he produced a superb pass under pressure to send Vincent over, with Jalibert converting again for a 24-3 lead.

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Italy were given hope when Monty Ioane scampered over from Stephen Varney’s blindside break but the try was disallowed, with the scrum-half’s pass to the winger adjudged to be forward.

France claimed the bonus-point try in the 49th minute when Villiere kicked ahead for full-back Dulin to collect and Jalibert landed the touchline conversion.

Italy were slipping badly off tackles as tiredness took its toll and Thomas burst clear to find Dupont on his inside and he ran through unopposed.

Dupont returned the favour to set up Thomas two minutes later and Jalibert added a sixth conversion before Italy wing Sperandio broke down the right to give the Azzurri some cheer.

But Thomas had the final word seven minutes from time, shaking off a couple of defenders to score in the corner and bring up the half-century of points.

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AM 4 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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