France survive scare at World Cup

France is leaving Fukuoka thinking that they were lucky to leave with a win after having survived a shock comparable to South Africa 4 years ago. The French team made a lot of changes in the squad that narrowly beat Argentina, with 12 players coming in. Meanwhile, the USA having been smashed 45-7 by England last Thursday made 5 changes which were either injury-related or through suspension.

French coach Jacques Brunel

The first half started well for France as they scored their first try after 5 minutes by Yoann Huget after brilliant work by the fullback Thomas Ramos. Then a chip over the defence by Camille Lopez left the ball going towards the sticks and Huget gathered the ball on the bounce and dived in under the sticks. Ramos who started of the attack finished it off with easy conversion to make it 7-0 France.

However, while their attack was good their discipline was anything less than "Magnifique" as after 20 minutes they had conceded 5 penalties. America took advantage of those penalties and AJ MacGinty chipped in an easy kick to make it 7-3 France. People were saying that was the difference between the French team and the England team against the USA. While France was letting the USA attack them after they scored the try England, however, kept the pressure on the US and it worked.

Alivereti Raka (left) scoring France's second try

Then 5 minutes later France scored their second try off an advantage given by referee Ben O'Keeffe as Lopez attacked the blind side of the USA and punted a pin-point crossfield kick to the arms of Alivereti Raka. However, because of the tight angle, the conversion by Ramos missed the extras.  Then the USA on the half-hour made another attack MacGinty found yards of open space in the French backfield, when Lopez got the ball off Ramos the USA had closed the ball down like an NFL punt team.

Then after an infringement on the scrum on France's 5-yard line, the USA had another penalty and decided to go for the posts which made it 12-6 France. That's how the game finished at halftime. The stats at halftime showed that the USA was actually dominating the French not just possession or territory. But also in their discipline. France had 8 penalties, 4 in their own 22 metres, while the USA had just 1 penalty. The only thing that the French were stopping a potential upset was their tackling as they were more ruthless in their tackling compared to America.

Gael Fickou (middle blue) scoring the 3rd try

The French coach decided to make a change at halftime with the hooker Camille Chat coming off for Guilhem Guiardo. Then 4 minutes later the rest of the front row came off as Jefferson Poirot and Rabah Slimani came on. That was the difference that France needed as they started building phases into US territory and started showing the difference in quality between the two teams. However, despite the change in tactics, the French weren't getting the end results as it showed when 10 minutes into the second half they had an opportunity to score again but an ambitious pass was drifted forward when a simple pass would have been advisable.

After that mistake, the USA suddenly smelt and opportunity and decided to go for the points Mike Te'o but a bad kick by MacGinty gave the ball back to France. Then the USA with 15 minutes to go made it a 3 point game after MacGinty kicked his 3rd penalty kick of the game. Then after this, it went all wrong for the USA. One minute after the penalty kick the French scored after Fickou dummied the US defence and darted past Tony Lamborn. Lopez took over the kicking duties and made it 19-9 France.

Baptiste Serin securing the bonus point for France.

Then the French being fashionably late decided to turn up and start playing the way they should be as 4 minutes later they scored their 4th try and get the bonus point as Baptiste Serin made the try under the posts and another Lopez conversion made it 26-9. Then right at the end of the game, France ended the game with their 5th try as Jefferson Poirot scrambled the ball across the line of a maul and Lopez converted the extras to end the game at 33-9.

Lopez was given the man of the match award after his kicking performance and France left the pitch feeling like they got away with it despite what the score looked like at full-time. France has 4 days to recover as they take on Tonga on Sunday. while the USA has a week off to prepare for a tough clash against England's opponents on Saturday,  Argentina.

I'll be back with England's game against Argentina on Saturday as they look to make it 3 out of 3 in the World Cup.