A lively and passionate Welsh side made an impressive start to the Millennium Stadium showdown. Stephen Jones and Damien Traille swapped early penalties but the expectant home crowd did not have to wait long for a Welsh try. Despite the defensive efforts of Gerald Merceron and Tony Marsh, Craig Quinnell powered through to the French line on ten minutes; Jones converted to push Wales further into the lead.
Those that had failed to prevent Quinnell’s try were responsible for pushing France into the lead soon after. Merceron sailed the oval through the uprights whilst New Zealand-born Marsh crossed the Welsh line in the corner for France’s first five-pointer. Jones slotted over two more penalties and as Merceron notched only one, Wales remained 16-14 ahead.
Marsh completed his brace of tries as he once more breached the Welsh defence for a second try. Merceron converted Marsh’s effort to nudge the visitors into the 21-16Â lead with just four minutes of play remaining in the first half.
Seeking to reduce this gap, fly half Jones fired over a penalty but when Scott Quinnell was rewarded with a yellow card by the referee for a late tackle Merceron made no mistake with the resultant penalty, pushing France into a five point lead at half-time.
A depleted Wales suffered on the resumption of the game. Aurelian Rougerie chased a kick to the line and was awarded with the five points after the video referee deemed he had grounded the ball and not his Welsh chaser, Kevin Morgan. Merceron converted and added a penalty as Wales were restored to fifteen men, but now trailed significantly 34-19.
Galvanised with the return of the captain, Wales sought to redress the imbalance in the scoreline. Andy Marinos charged at the French defence, managing to feed the ball to Nathan Budgett who duly crossed the French line. Jones converted and kept his 100% kicking record ongoing as he slotted over a penalty to reduce the gap to just eight points.
Merceron gained his sixth out of seventh attempt at goal to edge the French advantage once more but Wales soon after piled on the pressure. Jones kicked ahead for the pacy Kevin Morgan to gather and score a try, though he had to get the nod from the video referee, who would be further called upon in the dying stages of the match.
Trailing by just four points with eight minutes remaining, Wales threw everything they had left at the French defence but ultimately were not rewarded for their brave performance. Both Scott Quinnell and James crossed the French line but on both occasions were denied the points after video referee Claudio Giacomel deemed Quinnell did not ground the ball and James was in touch.
So near, and yet so far from a first win in the 2002 Lloyds TSB Six Nations, yet the match had proved a spectacular debut for new coach Steve Hansen and had raised Welsh hopes considerably after the mauling by the Irish in the first round.
