A second half try scoring blitz by France saw the home side defeat Wales 63-19 at a sold-out Stade de la Rabine in the opening round of the U20s Six Nations.
Richard Whiffin’s side - who featured Nick Thomas, Evan Minto, Logan Franklin, Harry Rees-Weldon and Harri Ford from Dragons RFC - gave an excellent account of themselves in the first half and enjoyed a slight advantage territorially and possession-wise but still found themselves behind at the break.
Hard running wing Aidan Boshoff and hooker Harry Thomas scored first half tries for Wales to keep them in the game at halftime. France scored three tries and the reliable boot of Diego Jurd saw France go down the tunnel 21-12 ahead.
The game was played at a frenetic pace throughout but in the second half France were red hot and raced over for six tries.
Wales kept plugging away with Thomas taking matters into his own hands to take a quick tap to score his second try in the 60th minute but France were in no mood to take their foot of the gas and secured another three tries to complete their haul of nine tries.
Fly half Diego Jurd had a faultless night with the boot to add nine conversions to ensure France’s campaign got off to a flyer.
Despite the defeat Whiffin was encouraged by the performance, particularly the first 40 minutes where his side took the game to the pre-match favourites.
“We’re massively disappointed with the final score-line, the boys put in a lot of effort and I don’t think the game reflected the score but credit to France who were very clinical in the second half,” he said.
“I felt the game hinged on a big moment in the 38th minute when Harry Beddall was yellow carded. We just had 10 minutes of territory in their 22 and with five repeat penalties and leave with no yellow card and they go down the other end and get a yellow card after one entry so that was a big moment.
“They obviously went in nine points up at halftime then to be fair we didn’t control the 10 minute period as well as we could have. To be fair to the French they got momentum, and we couldn’t quite create enough or stop enough errors to stop them getting points in the second half.”
