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Last-gasp penalty edges Australia to victory over second string France

By PA
Matt Philip of the Wallabies (center) reacts to a non try during the international Test match between the Australia Wallabies and France at Suncorp Stadium on July 07, 2021 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)

Noah Lolesio’s late penalty saw Australia snatch a dramatic last-gasp 23-21 win over France as a young and ill-disciplined visiting side blew an early 15-0 lead.

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France needed only to kick into touch at the death but lost their composure under pressure and allowed Tate McDermott to swoop on the ball and put the game on to Lolesio’s boot.

It was a second consecutive match in which France led with the ball in their hands after 80 minutes but ended up on the losing side following their dramatic 27-23 Six Nations loss to Scotland in March.

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    NZ players on the clunky start for the Springboks in their Lions warm up against Georgia

    Australia had looked rusty in the early stages of their first international of 2021, allowing a second-string French side to race into a 15-0 lead with two tries from Gabin Villiere inside the opening 20 minutes.

    Having dug themselves a considerable hole, Australia finally began to grow into the game, and some strong pressure finally paid off when Brandon Paenga-Amosa crossed to get them on the board with 35 minutes gone.

    They cut the gap further four minutes into the second half as France gifted Australia another penalty, with Lolesio taking advantage to make it 15-10, but Louis Carbonel quickly replied for France.

    Australia began to pile on the pressure again and had a chance from a line-out when Hunter Paisami tried to chip through for Tom Wright, but the bounce went against him and France escaped.

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    The two teams traded penalties around the hour mark, Lolesio cutting the deficit before France substitute Melvyn Jaminet responded with a huge 45-metre effort from the left touchline to make it an eight-point contest once again.

    But this young French side – missing several key players with the Top 14 final between Toulouse and La Rochelle only last week – continued to concede too many penalties, and the next one handed a critical advantage to Australia who capitalised when Michael Hooper crossed with nine minutes to go.

    It appeared Australia had blown their chance when Lolesio missed a drop goal in the 77th minute, but he would make no such mistake when the opportunity came his way again moments later.

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    J
    JW 13 minutes ago
    'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

    Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


    So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


    Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

    111 Go to comments
    T
    Tom 1 hour ago
    No definites, but which Wales players could still make Lions squad?

    Williams, Faletau, Lake, Morgan are the only ones who have a chance. None of them are guaranteed but I'd imagine they'll pick Williams and Morgan who could get in on merit and will likely be favoured for inclusivity.


    Williams is fighting it out with Ben White for 3rd slot behind JGP and Mitchell.

    Morgan is up against JVDF, Earl, Curry, Curry, Willis for 4 flanker slots. Morgan is a fantastic player but a huge call to leave any of those boys at home given how much Wales struggled at the breakdown against England. He's by no means solely responsible for that but it will be fresh in the minds of the selectors. Given the amount of hybrid players emerging and the inclination for a 6-2 split, they may be able to find room for a 5th flanker in the squad. In which case may be Ben Curry who misses out or Willis might be excluded given we have such depth in the players who have chosen to play for clubs this side of the channel.


    Lake and Faletau are good enough but I'd be surprised if Faletau gets picked over Conan and Lake would be up against Cowan-Dickie which I can't see happening. Blair Murray is probably 4th in the 15 pecking order behind Kinghorn, Heenan, Marcus Smith. He may be a better 15 than Smith but Smith brings versatility so would be ahead of him. Since Smith may go on tour as a 10/15 hybrid, they would already have 3 fullbacks in the squad so Murray won't make it, good player though.


    Nicky Smith and Dafydd Jenkins clutching at straws.

    3 Go to comments
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