Wales may have only just returned to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series but they could be excused for already being sick of the sight of Jordan Sepho.
For the second week running the flying Frenchman scored tries in the first, third and eighth minute to secure his second consecutive hat-trick against Wales.
France thrived whenever they had ball in hand. From the outset Wales were under pressure with Morgan MacRae getting yellow carded in the opening exchange. France made their superior numbers pay immediately with Sepho strolling over out wide.
Sepho then struck again two minutes later before Morgan Williams cantered over from halfway to reduce the arrears.
Wales then went on the attack, but with Owen Jenkins down injured, France seized possession and Joachim Trouabal ran the length of the field to give France a 21-5 lead at the break.
Sepho glided through to claim his hat-trick before Dragons winger Ewan Rosser kicked behind the French defence, won the race for the ball and ghosted over but just as it looked like Wales were staging a recovery, two quick fire tries by France saw them triumph 38-12.
Pugh’s young side have already found to their cost that there is zero tolerance for any misdemeanour, not matter how small.
“There were little bits of inexperience, especially around the yellow card for a penalty that wasn’t much but when you roll the ball away it’s costly and France scored two tries as a result. Good teams like France will punish you for those errors which simply come from inexperience,” said Pugh.
“But it’s part of the learning curve and there are lots of lessons to learn. We have to improve tomorrow against England because we can’t afford to fall off two or three tackles like that.”
France dominated possession but Wales still managed to impress when they had ball in hand.
“They scored two tries and when we did take control of the game and managed to keep the ball we scored – we were actually down to five men as Owen Jenkins was struggling at one point – we were actually keeping the ball well but we couldn’t break them down and as soon as we were turned over they went the length so instead of going into the half 14-12 we went in 21-5. And that’s difficult.
“Then they score straight after the break – so it’s lessons learned the hard way but ones we have to make sure we put right. That’s just one game in the pool, there are still two to go and we’ve got to put our hands up and go for it tomorrow.”
Wales remaining two Pool C games will be held tomorrow against England (8.57am UK) and Japan (1.57pm) before the quarter-finals are staged.
Planned move, right @lloydevs7?!#HSBC7s | #Spain7s pic.twitter.com/gnNxgJCrr3
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) January 28, 2022
