International: France give Argentina the boot as ‘Les Bleus’
win ugly in Marseille
09 November 2008
It wasn’t pretty, but they
did it. France beat Argentina 12-6 in Marseille last night,
recording only their second win in eight against their South
American nemesis.
All of the points came
from the boot – David Skrela and Benoit Baby for France;
Felipe Contepomi for Argentina – but ‘Les Bleus’ won’t give
a stuff about that. This was simply a game they had to win,
no matter how, and they did.
It was a largely staccato
affair in Marseille, with both sides employing the boot more
than the hand as the light drizzle made slick back moves a
gamble with the greasy ball.
Contepomi missed an early
penalty to put the Pumas ahead before Skrela, playing
opposite Hernandez for the second time in a fortnight,
lifted France with a neat drop-goal.
A flurry of points –
relatively – around the half hour saw Argentina draw level
courtesy of a Contepomi kick before Skrela and Baby (with a
monster kick) lifted the home side 9-3 ahead going into the
interval.
Yet another penalty
allowed the Pumas to reduce that to 9-6, and it remained
that way until four minutes from the end of the match as
both sides battled for scraps.
Debutant Maxime Medard did
make one flashing break, but other than that it was a
largely dreary affair, with the result being all that
mattered on this occasion.
Head coach Marc Lièvremont
underlined that victory had been paramount on an otherwise
frustrating night in Marseille. “It was really important
after three successive defeats to them. We are not delighted
but we are satisfied. We will try and score tries in our
next match,” he said.
That is against the
Pacific Islanders, who were beaten 39-13 by England in an
entertaining encounter at Twickenham.
England’s young backs gave a glimpse of a
bright future as they ran in five tries to get the Martin
Johnson era off to a winning start.
Again, there was plenty to
be critical about but there was certainly no doubting the
raw pace England boasted with debutant full-back Delon
Armitage the most impressive of four new caps.
Celebrity fly-half Danny
Cipriani experienced a mixed game on his comeback to
international rugby, racking up 19 points (including a try)
in the win. But the Wasps maestro also showed his naivety at
this level in dallying over a clearance kick that was
charged down for the Islanders’ opening score.
Winger Paul Sackey
underlined his credentials with a brace of tries, and the
pace and power of fellow winger Ugo Monye was apparent for
all to see.
With Danny Care sniping at
scrum-half and Steve Borthwick leading from the front there
was enough to get the British media excited about ahead of
their Southern Hemisphere triple-header in the coming weeks.
South Africa survived a
stern test by Wales to win 20-15 at the Millennium Stadium
and New Zealand’s reserves proved too strong for a spirited
Scots team that went down 32-6.
Australia needed to dig
deep for their 30-20 win over Italy, while Ireland
demolished Canada 55-0.
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