France U20’s inflicted a third consecutive defeat on Phil Davies side as they won an entertaining match at Haguenau Stadium on Saturday.
Davies was looking for his first win in the championship after defeats to Scotland and England in recent weeks but his team were well beaten after being competitive for the first half hour.
It was a stop-start opening quarter of an hour as both sides tried to gain the upper hand in beautiful conditions at and it was Wales, through fly half Jason Tovey, that opened the scoring with a penalty.
The home side fought back and had a period of possession with ball in hand on the 22, but the Welsh defence held firm in the face of wave after wave of attack
But the pressure told and when Scott Andrews was penalised for an illegal tackle after 21 minutes. Fly half Romain Lombard slotted the goal to tie the game and provide a fair reflection of the opening quarter.
The French pack took the momentum and they rumbled forward with a succession of timely offloads and charges to earn 60 yards. Wales were rocking and with the sun on their backs, Lombard pulled the strings and controlled the field position for his side.
But the Welsh youngsters soaked up the pressure and produced some pressure of their own, and as France defended they were caught offside on their 22, and then coughed up a further 10 yards to hand Tovey a very kickable penalty after 35 minutes.
The young Dragon slotted the goal. However, the lead lasted just two minutes as Lombard levelled with this second penalty. When Rory Pitman was found guilty of not releasing, the home fly half gave his side a 9-6 lead.
And the French extended that lead when captain Alexandre Lapandry snatched a loose ball from the scrum and scampered 22 meters to touch down. Lombard converted and Wales were up against it trailing 16-6 at the break
And it didn’t take long into the second half for Bayonne wing Benjamin Fall to add a second try for his side – just five minutes into the second period. Replacement Pierre Bernard took over kicking duties and was successful to stretch the lead further.
That spurred coach Davies to make four changes as he looked to find a formula to break down the French defence in the remaining half an hour.
But it was more of the same from rampaging French and it forced the Welsh into errors as they played on the back foot.
It got worse when Rhys Williams was yellow carded for a conceding penalty at a ruck 30 metres from goal. It was an easy kick for Bernard, the lead was extended to 19 points with just over 20 minutes of the match remaining.
But 14-man Wales mounted their first sustained attacking spell of the second period and Justin Tipuric was the man who crossed to give his side some ray of hope of turning the match around in the final 15 minutes.
Tovey added the extras but a botched restart meant within seconds the French had a score of their own from replacement full back Leo Griffoul. Bernard slotted the conversion from the wide right and his side were in complete control.
As the action heated up, so rose the penalty count, and as Williams returned to the field from his sin binning, France were down to 14 men after the referee ran out of patience with their persistent infringement.
Man of the match Lapandry got his second score with eight minutes remaining. A swift high tempo score that summed up the abilities of the young French team who, despite conceding a late try to Pitman, were good value for their win
