SIX NATIONS: France 28 Wales 9:GRAND SLAM winners Lee Byrne and Ryan Jones led a chorus of condemnation over Wales' Stade de France no-show that produced another Six Nations finish outside the top three. For a 10th time in 12 seasons of Six Nations rugby, Wales found themselves in the table's bottom half, dropping like a stone from second to fourth after Les Bleus blew them away 28-9.
They went into battle knowing an improbable 27-point winning margin would give them the title at England’s expense, but Wales ended a sobering night in St Denis reflecting on their heaviest Six Nations defeat for five years.
Not since Ireland crushed them 31-5 at the old Lansdowne Road had Wales experienced such Six Nations misery, and neither full-back Byrne nor 2008 Grand Slam captain Jones held back.
“France came out fired up from their defeat last week (against Italy) and they did a job on us, to be honest,” Byrne said. “We just didn’t turn up. We know we are a better team than that, so it is a disappointing finish after the hard work we have put in.
“It will be a while now before we can pull the jersey on again and make things right. Hopefully, we can go out here next time and compete better, because it was shocking at times. Physically, we are in great shape, but the killer instinct is something we can get better at.”
And number eight Jones added: “We’ve got to deal with it, and reflect on it. It’s a big (World Cup) year. All in all, we have made some improvements, but collectively we have got to be far better on the big occasion. They are all going to be big games (at the World Cup). First and foremost, we’ve got a warm-up series in the summer that we’ve got to be firing on all cylinders for. There is going to be finger-pointing, we’ve got to be honest and true to each other and make sure we come back as a better team.”
Apart from a couple of fleeting moments in attack, notably when wing Leigh Halfpenny burst clear only to be sent sprawling by a brilliant Francois Trinh-Duc ankle-tap tackle, it was a Saturday night horror show for Wales.
They spent much of the game defending and struggled to cope with France’s driving lineout, whose star operator Lionel Nallet scored two tries before wing Vincent Clerc’s touchdown compounded Welsh misery.
Clerc scored less than two minutes after James Hook was harshly sinbinned for what appeared to be a dangerous tackle. Hook, who kicked all his team’s points, became the fourth Welsh player yellow-carded in this season’s tournament after Craig Mitchell, Bradley Davies and Byrne.
And even the younger team members, individuals such as flanker Dan Lydiate, knew Wales had gone missing on an occasion when the promise generated by three successive Six Nations victories evaporated.
“We let ourselves down, we let the coaches down and we let all our fans down. It was a shocking performance all-round,” said Lydiate.
FRANCE:Medard; Clerc, Marty, Traille, Palisson; Trinh-Duc, Parra; Domingo, Servat, Mas, Pierre, Nallet, Dusautoir, Bonnaire, Harinordoquy. Replacements:Pape for Mas, Ducalcon for Pierre (both 66 mins), Estebanez for Traille, Guirado for Servat (both70 mins), Lapandry for Harinordoquy (72 mins), Tomas for Parra (73 mins), Huget for Clerc (75 mins).
WALES:Byrne; Halfpenny, Roberts, J Davies, North; Hook, Phillips; James, Rees, A Jones, B Davies, A Jones, Lydiate, Warburton, R Jones, Thomas. Replacements:Thomas for Warburton (15 mins), Yapp for A Jones (52 mins), S Jones for Hook (66 mins), Peel for Phillips, Hibbard for Rees (both 67 mins), McCusker for Thomas (71 mins). Sin Bin: Hook (57 mins).
Referee:C Joubert (South Africa).
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