International:
Skrela’s nightmare hands Aussies a narrow Paris win
23 November 2008
David Skrela missed five penalties as France
were beaten 18-13 by Australia at the Stade de France.
The Toulouse fly-half, who has been in superb
form for his club this season, capped a miserable night for
both himself and Les Bleus when he was also yellow carded
for a high tackle late on.
But it was his nightmare kicking show that
proved so costly, with Australia rallying from 13-10 down to
continue their unbeaten passage through Europe.
French coach Marc Lièvremont refused to blame
Skrela’s waywardness for the defeat, but he did admit that
missed chances had proved their undoing.
"Clearly, we put a helping hand around him
[Skrela]," said Lièvremont. " We all know he is usually a
great kicker. The idea is more to comfort him than to blame
him. Sometimes this is what happens in rugby. It is part of
the game but we had the ability to win this match. It hurts
but it's like that."
He added: "We could have taken that match but
we didn't and there is an enormous frustration.
"We had the chance to seal that game when
leading 13-10 but we made a few mistakes. Against teams like
Australia, you don't get 10 chances, you get three or four.
We are able to compete against the biggest teams in the
world but we can't express ourselves. We haven't got a match
next week so we will have to wait two more months now."
Australian fly-half Matt Giteau opened the
scoring with a penalty after 30 minutes, with hooker Stephen
Moore crashing over for a try shortly after as the Wallabies
moved 10-0 ahead.
In response Skrela squandered four kicks
(three penalties and a drop goal) before the French finally
got on the scoreboard courtesy of a penalty try when George
Smith infringed as the forwards powered on from a five metre
scrum.
Skrela landed the conversion to make it 10-7
at half-time, adding a penalty after the break to level the
scores before young full-back Maxime Medard struck with a
45m drop-goal to move the French ahead.
Australia’s response was a second try, this
time from Peter Hynes, but Skrela’s night of woe continued
with two more shanked penalties as the home crowd began to
give him the bird.
His subsequent yellow card (in the 75th
minute) highlighted his own frustrations, with Australia
already five points clear by then thanks to another penalty
from Giteau.
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