By Nick Powell, Online Editor
Italy…………………24
Tries: Capuozzo 33, Penalty 51
Penalties: Allan 14, 23, 40+2, 62
France………………29
Tries: Flament 5, Ramos 19, Dumortier 28, Jalibert 67
Conversions: Ramos 6, 29, 68
Penalties: Ramos 47
Matthieu Jalibert’s bonus point-securing try gave France a winning start to their grand slam defence as they held off a terrific Italian fightback in an absorbing contest.
France ran up a 19-6 lead inside half an hour as Thibaud Flament, Thomas Ramos and Ethan Dumortier all crossed.
A superb finish from Ange Capuozzo got Italy back in the contest though, and Tommasso Allan knocked over the last of three penalties in first-half overtime to cut the gap to five.
Ramos extended the lead back to eight with a penalty of his own, but Charles Ollivon was sin-binned and Italy were awarded a penalty try as the French flanker brought down a dangerous maul, and Allan put the hosts in the lead as the yellow card period came to a close.
But France’s fourth try proved decisive as Matthieu Jalibert scored with almost his first touch after a pair of excellent offloads in the build-up, and the visitors survived a late Azzurri assault to cling on for their 14th consecutive victory.
“We’re really happy for the win but we have to give credit to Italy.” said French openside Paul Willemse after the game. “I think they’ve really lifted their game from last year.
“They put us under pressure, they’ve improved their game plan and their discipline so it was a tough game.
“We’ll definitely have to better in Dublin, and we need to prepare well for that challenge.”
France come out flying as Italians start sloppy
France were almost on the board inside two minutes, as Ramos latched on to a loose ball from the Azzurri backs but failed to feed Damian Penaud for what looked a simple score.
Moments later, however, France did have their first try, again coming from loose Italian play as Stephen Varney’s low-trajectory box kick was seized upon by Star Man Flament, who finished off from the charge-down.
Allan got his side on the board ten minutes later, but it was almost disaster for Italy straight from the restart as Ollivon scooped up yet another loose Italian ball after wide play from deep, but was deemed to have knocked on when the grounding was checked by the TMO.
France were nonetheless in the right part of the field and sustained pressure eventually told as Ramos pounced on a ball and dotted down as neither Capuozzo nor Penaud could cleanly win a contest in the air following a crossfield kick.
Allan kept the gap within a score with another penalty, but Italy were soon finding themselves facing their largest deficit in the game as Alldritt won a turnover inside Italy’s 22 as the hosts failed to look after the ball again, and with possession quickly recycled Ntamack utilised the crossfield kick once again to feed debutant Dumortier for a simple finish.
France survive onslaught to clinch win
Italy were again presented with a chance to respond to a try with three points, but this time they turned it down, and were rewarded shortly after as superstar Capuozzo showed all his class to step into space before a flying finish in the corner.
With the clock in the red for the first half, Allan brought his points tally to nine, and although France drew first blood in the second period to re-establish a two score buffer, the visitors were rocked five minutes later as momentum surged towards the Azzurri.
An effective maul was brought down by Ollivon and following a TMO check, the backrower saw yellow and the gap was immediately reduced to one point through a penalty try.
Italy had their tails up, and held firm during the sin bin period before Allan sent over a penalty that gave them their first lead against France in the second half for seven years.
They had the chance to extend their lead with more phases in the French 22, and once Jalibert had crossed off the back of a well-judged offload by Romain Taofifenua, Allan missed an opportunity to cut the gap to two off the tee.
And after Allan failed to give Italy the best possible field position with two conservative touch-finders, the French clung on to win as they won a turnover from an Italian maul.
Allan said: “It’s quite tough to swallow this defeat. We had our chances. In the first half we had too many errors. We gave 19 points to the French off of our mistakes
“We have to find our balance of execution. We will be more diligent the more we do. There’s a lot of positive to take from this. We are very confident for next week’s game.
“It’s small margins. I need to make those kicks and next time we can kick to win as well.
“Were improving every week. We have to start winning as well now. We know we can win. We showed some good rugby today.”
Italy: Capuozzo 8, Bruno 6 (Padovani 68, 6), Brex 6, Morisi 7, Menoncello 7, Allan 7, Varney 5 (Fusco 74); Fischetti 7 (Zani 68, 6), Nicotera 8 (Bigi 68, 5), Ferrari 7 (Ceccarelli 68, 5), Cannone 7 (Iachizzi 68, 6), Ruzza 7, Negri 6 (Zuliani 65, 7), Lamaro (c) 7, Cannone 6 (Pettinelli 5).
France: Ramos 8, Penaud 7, Fickou 7, Moefana 5, Dumortier 6, Ntamack 7 (Jalibert 67, 7), Dupont (c) 8; Baille 7 (Wardi 52, 6), Marchand 7 (Barlot 61, 7), Atonio 7 (Falatea 5), Flament 9, Willemse 7 (Taofifenua 52, 7), Jelonch 8, Ollivon 5, Alldritt 7 (Malacou 62, 5).
Not used: Lavault, Le Garrec.
Referee: Matthew Carley
Star Man: Thibaud Flament (France)
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