France overpower Wales in Six Nations thriller

France overpowered winless Wales in an eight-try Six Nations thriller in Cardiff.

Wales managed tries from Rio Dyer, Tomos Williams and Joe Roberts but were outmuscled in the second half.

France scored 25 unanswered points in the final quarter.

It was a highest points tally for Les Bleus in Wales as Fabien Galthie’s side bounced back from a draw with Italy, lifting themselves to fourth in the table.

Warren Gatland’s side, who are rooted to the bottom of the table, now face the possibility of a first Six Nations Wooden Spoon since 2003.

This was an 11th defeat in 12 Six Nations games for Wales – four during this tournament – and a sixth successive loss to France.

Wales play Italy on the final day of this year’s Six Nations in Cardiff, while France host England in Lyon and Scotland travel to face leaders Ireland.

Le Garrec fills Dupont’s massive boots

Wales had lost their opening three Six Nations games, with narrow defeats against Scotland and England before a 31-7 reverse in Dublin.

France had lost to Ireland and drawn with Italy, while claiming a scratchy victory over Scotland at Murrayfield.

That mixed return had created a debate about whether France were in crisis, with the position of head coach Fabien Galthie also questioned.

This dominant performance should end such talk that for now.

Galthie made eight changes, selecting three debutants in full-back Leo Barre, centre Nicolas Depoortere and lock Emmanuel Meafou.

There was a new half-back pairing, with Le Garrec producing a player-of-the-match performance and Ramos switching effectively to fly-half from full-back.

Wales had initially made four personnel changes, with an additional positional switch from lock for captain Dafydd Jenkins, who started at blind-side flanker for the first time in his professional career

Centres George North and Nick Tompkins were controversially dropped, replaced by Roberts and Owen Watkin, while hooker Ryan Elias was a late withdrawal because of a hamstring injury. Elliot Dee therefore started, leading the side out on his 50th cap.

Costelow and Ramos exchanged early penalties before Dyer broke through the France defence for a fine individual try.

A huge scrum provided the platform for Ramos’ second penalty, while the formidable France attack broke down the Wales defence as Fickou powered through an attempted Costelow tackle to score.

Wales restored the advantage almost immediately with Watkin scything through the visitors’ defence before finding scrum-half Williams who cantered over.

The hosts conceded a simple try when Fickou burst through from an attacking scrum to lay the foundations for Le Garrec to dummy his way over.

Le Garrec’s performance demonstrated why he is the man to fill the shoes of Antoine Dupont while he is away with the France sevens team.

Le Garrec’s outrageous reverse pass almost resulted in a third France try as the visitors led 20-17 at half-time.

Wales started the second half in stunning style, with some neat interplay between Costelow, Reffell and Williams creating the space for Roberts to cross for his first Wales try in his second international.

France changed half their pack, including the front-row trio, as they aimed to restore their physical advantage, and lock Thibaud Flament was denied a try after he dropped the ball over the Wales line.

Power play

The home side also made changes, including the introduction of fly-half Ioan Lloyd and loss of injured Reffell, which left Wales without a natural open-side flanker for the final quarter.

The France onslaught continued as Wales continually conceded penalties with Ramos reducing the deficit to one point.

Wing Damien Penaud was causing havoc down France’s right flank and a brilliant Le Garrec pick-up continued the flowing move which ended with Colombe driving over.

Replacement scrum-half Gareth Davies then saw his kick charged down by France replacement lock Taofifenua, who gathered possession to score the bonus-point try. Ramos’ successful conversion ensured France had scored 17 points in nine minutes.

Wales handed a debut to Cardiff replacement hooker Evan Davies, who has made just six replacement senior appearances after converting from number eight to the front row.

That just demonstrated the stark difference in the experience of the two benches.

It was left to France replacement scrum-half Lucu to cross for the final try to give the large travelling contingent the final cheer as chants of “Allez les bleus” reverberated around the Principality Stadium.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland: “We were up 24-23 but didn’t manage the game with turnovers and we’re disappointed with some soft points given away.

“We probably overplayed. When we were down by six points and you’re thinking just play territory make it easy for yourselves, we hurt ourselves and did not play well enough in that last period.

“France put our scrum under pressure, that’s something we’ve been working hard on and we’re not there at the moment. I thought our line-out was excellent and our line speed could have been better.

“The plan was if we went multiple phases we’d cause them lots of problems and we did. But we didn’t help ourselves with some of the mistakes for us.”

French captain Gregory Alldritt: “We had a great performance today, we were frustrated after Italy and wanted to make France proud again, so it’s great to do that at this stadium.

“We have a massive pack and we wanted to be tough on the collision. We have some good young players and I’m proud of them.”

Line-ups

Wales: Winnett; Adams, Roberts, Watkin, Dyer; Costelow, Tomos Williams; G Thomas, Dee, Assiratti, Rowlands, Beard, D Jenkins (capt), Reffell, Wainwright.

Replacements: E Lloyd, Domachowski, Lewis, Martin, Mann, G Davies, I Lloyd, Grady.

France: Barre; Penaud, Fickou, Depoortere, Bielle-Biarrey; Ramos, Le Garrec; Baille, Marchand, Atonio, Flament, Meafou, Cros, Ollivon, Alldritt (capt).

Replacements: Mauvaka, S Taofifenua, Colombe, Taofifenua, Roumat, Boudehent, Lucu, Moefana.

Match officials

Referee: Luke Pearce (England)

Touch judges: Andrew Brace (Ireland) & Damian Schneider (Australia)

TMO: Ian Tempest (England)