Michalak shines in French victory
10 Nov 2012
GARETH DUNCAN watched Frederic Michalak excel at flyhalf as France broke their seven-year losing streak to Australia with a 33-6 triumph in Paris.
It was a strong team performance that saw Les Bleus dominate in what proved to be a one-sided contest. The hosts held the ascendancy up front as the injury-hit Wallabies were bullied at the Stade de France.
Michalak used this platform to spearhead his team to the win. While the former Sharks pivot has received limited game time in the No 10 jersey at his club Toulon so far in the European season, he dazzled with an impressive all-round performance on this occasion.
He kicked 15 points via three conversions, two penalties and a drop goal, and it was his individual brilliance from a quick throw that set up wing Wesley Fofana for the team’s second try. He showed great pace and a good step to pass opposite number Kurtley Beale, before offloading to the supporting speedster.
No 8 Louis Picamoles, who also put in a strong display, crossed the chalk in the opening 40, while France were also awarded a penalty try. Replacement scrumhalf Morgan Parra completed the rout with a late shot at goal.
Wallabies fullback Mike Harris converted two penalties in the opening 40, which proved to the tourists’ only points of the game.
It was Harris who opened the scoring in the eighth minute, but France surged into a 10-point lead thanks to Picamoles’ charge from close range and Michalak’s boot (a conversion and two penalties).
Michalak and Harris traded three-pointers before the break as the French led 16-6 at half-time.
In the second stanza, the Wallabies faltered as France surged to victory with a slick attacking performance and a resilient defence.
Fofana’s score created a comfortable buffer in the third quarter, while referee Nigel Owens’ decision to award the home team a penalty try sealed matters. The Wallabies created a few try-scoring opportunities during the half, but they failed to convert any of them.
49 Comments
10 Nov 2012, 21:39 pm
Froggy dragons by a whisker
10 Nov 2012, 21:44 pm
wp jou lekker ding
10 Nov 2012, 21:45 pm
oz will be lucky to walk away with a win here
10 Nov 2012, 21:45 pm
Vive le France.
10 Nov 2012, 22:09 pm
The first 10 mins looks 200% more intense than the nonsense earlier in the day in Dublin.
10 Nov 2012, 22:24 pm
frenchies got ozzies number
nice
10 Nov 2012, 22:29 pm
Sad, but I need the Aussies to lose so that I can try to feel better about that **** I watched earlier.
10 Nov 2012, 22:43 pm
France looking good. Perhaps we can buy their coach.
10 Nov 2012, 22:47 pm
just dont go to sleep in the 2nd, frecnhies,
so far so goos
10 Nov 2012, 22:49 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-9:
You better watch out that you don’t go to sleep in the second half mate.
You might miss a good game…
10 Nov 2012, 23:16 pm
Woohoo, go France!
10 Nov 2012, 23:22 pm
How on earth did we lose to these bums? Meyer, that’s how.
10 Nov 2012, 23:28 pm
Penalty try! Aussies have no scrum. Shameful.
10 Nov 2012, 23:34 pm
Is Quade correct about Deans and the Aussie team?
Is Deans gone at the end of this eoyt?
I think so.
10 Nov 2012, 23:35 pm
Australia’s Achilles heel, wet weather rugby.
10 Nov 2012, 23:36 pm
I can’t believe Australia just avoided having a man sent off for a blatant spear tackle because none of the three officials saw his number.
10 Nov 2012, 23:37 pm
Kaksioek, you have no mates. Whining little girl.
10 Nov 2012, 23:38 pm
Rob Simmons you dirty piece of ****. If he isn’t banned there is no justice at all in this sport.
10 Nov 2012, 23:39 pm
@RAI8-17: Suck it, Aussie loser.
10 Nov 2012, 23:39 pm
@kaksioek-16: It’s a disgraceful system, “we couldn’t see what number Rob Simmons jersey is”…
10 Nov 2012, 23:41 pm
Owens, Barnes, Lawrence, why?
10 Nov 2012, 23:42 pm
@CSI:Rugby-21: At least they penalize the Aussies for their inability to scrum in the NH.
10 Nov 2012, 23:43 pm
@kaksioek-22: They love their scrimmaging in the north.
10 Nov 2012, 23:44 pm
@CSI:Rugby-20: All they needed to do was look at the big screen like the rest of the crowd. What a farce.
10 Nov 2012, 23:48 pm
these frogs are woes!!!!!!!!
10 Nov 2012, 23:49 pm
Hiding of note.
10 Nov 2012, 23:49 pm
Australian scrums, mate, you cannot blame the coach for what has been a poor facet of wallaby rugby since Richard Harry, Patricio Noreiga retired. If Deans is to go, David Nucifora should be right behind him.
10 Nov 2012, 23:51 pm
France and Argentina will fck up the Boks next time they meet unless somebody catches a wake up and fires the Springbok coach.
10 Nov 2012, 23:53 pm
Surely Deans is gone at the end of the year.
10 Nov 2012, 23:54 pm
So SA move to 2nd spot, France – to 4th or even 3rd, Australia falling, Pumas to 6th, Wales going down.
10 Nov 2012, 23:55 pm
The Aussie press is going to be amusing tomorrow.
11 Nov 2012, 00:00 am
Luckily we are not playing France. Meyer will nevertheless get exposed when we play England.
11 Nov 2012, 00:07 am
Australian media is obsessed with their daisy picking backline. Always about the Quade Coopers, Beales, Ioane, Ashley-Cooper etc, never about the tight five, the engine room, and we all know that it’s won or loss up front. It’s why I believe that David Nucifora in his role at the Aussie rugby academy is doing a pisspoor job of implementing a tight five program that creates depth in that area. Sadly, I reckon NZ and SA will lose a few juniors soon to the Super Rugby teams in Australia and do the Mike Harris transition.
11 Nov 2012, 00:28 am
The Aussies are concerned:
74th min: The Wallabies are becoming a shambles. They are being brutalised at the breakdown, traumatised at the scrum and left for dead on the scoreboard. When the French forward pack ran out on to Stade de France, they saw the road sign “Wallabies, next 80 mins”. They hit the accelerator and have mowed them down – it’s Wallabies road kill. Yet another penalty against that flimsy wall of gold masquerading as a scrum.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/rugby-union-match-centre/live-france-v-australia-20121110-294f9.html#ixzz2BrTKsBsx
11 Nov 2012, 01:08 am
well done French, No excuses we need to improve big time
11 Nov 2012, 01:48 am
This shows why SA avoids France like the plague.
Last 11 years SA and france have played 10 times.
France have won 6
1 draw
lost 3 times.
France is a team that can turn it on big time.
11 Nov 2012, 03:25 am
@Hurricane-36: you should know,they turned it on against you lot in wcs quite a lot
11 Nov 2012, 04:45 am
@slavedriver-37:
strange…6 times we have played them in RWC and beaten them 4 times.
So if thats quite alot then…..ok
11 Nov 2012, 10:56 am
Wallabies must sort out their scrum mess without resorting to their silly prop rotation tactics. Guys go off and come back on so often, neither the commentators nor the ref can keep up with the charade. It’s already cost them dearly in one test match when they were forced to play out the last minutes with 14 men. The IRB must step in and slap them around a few times and tell them to harden the fck up and stop doing it.
11 Nov 2012, 11:08 am
@Gumboots-10:
what a match, Boots.
it was awesome and epic and the face of the ozzies said it all
i thought they would at least have had the guts and mental strength to force through a consolation try, but oh farking nooooo… the frogs had other ideas… beeyootiful
11 Nov 2012, 11:26 am
@SAussie-35:
Commiserations SAussie.
Best of luck going forward.
11 Nov 2012, 13:52 pm
And some people STILL think the NH is playing a lower quality brand.
11 Nov 2012, 14:59 pm
@Hurricane-36: They used to play a lot until mid 00s. Since then mere 2 times in last 6 years, that’s rare.
I would love Blacks, too, playing French each and every year in Europe, instead of giving the Welsh every year the false hope.
This game was reverse mirror image of the last game when Aussies gave them a thrashing of biblical proportions, scoring 46 unanswered points in the last 30 minutes or so.
11 Nov 2012, 15:18 pm
@Hurricane-36: However it adds a certain irony to the calls of Bokke leaving SH tourney and going north to play the 6 Nations teams (apparently where they hope to beat everyone hands down) while Bokke recently visit as rarely as possible the country which team firmly has the wood on them.
12 Nov 2012, 00:06 am
@Hurricane-36:
Hurricane – when you consider this same Aussie team beat the Pumas in Argentina (who culled Wales in Cardiff) and drew 18-18 with the so-called “greatest All Blacks side ever” (that’s a load of bollocks for a start) – but nevertheless … when you consider that the Frogs massacred them 33-6 it puts into perspective how incomparable France is when they are firing on all five cylinders. There isn’t a side on earth who can defeat them when they are like this – unstoppable.
I was amazed at their front rank play – how they had heavy-duty to begin with and then replaced it with even heavier artillery off the bench … have you seen a tighthead take his opposite down into the mud and then using sheer back and thigh strength LIFT THE WHOLE OPPOSITION PACK coming up for the floor for a penalty try drive. Never seen anything like that in my life – study that game – when they play like that (which they always can and will do, but you never know when) … when they play like that, it doesn’t matter who you are you will get taught a rugby lesson: just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant – what a joy to watch. (How was the defence, all the loose forwards, Michalak – what a comeback – you could go on for hours about: breathtaking stuff).
And the next week they could lose to Tanzania … by far and away the most interesting team, academically speaking.
12 Nov 2012, 03:48 am
@Nils-44:
Yes it is a bit odd.
@J.B. Cowper-45:
I would never say this is the greatest AB team ever, thats silly. Just as silly as a few SA posters saying the AB side is average or rubbish.
I think this AB side is a damn good side, actually the last 10 years we have had really good teams.
France is one of those teams as we all know. Thing is with them they can turn a game on its head in a matter of 10 mins. A few times the ABs have looked to have the game sealed and 10 mins later France are ahead.I think these guys are the ABs of the NH without the consistency.
Good running backs, normally have a good #10 and with a good balance of forwards.
These guys are due for a RWC title, if they sort the consistency out that is.
But if any team can turn it on the best, that team is the ABs…. who has ever smashed the Irish by 60-0.
12 Nov 2012, 06:42 am
Well done France.
Will post again later; am in the pyschologist’s waiting room awaiting counselling…
12 Nov 2012, 08:00 am
@Hurricane-46:
Respectfully disagree with a few points – and agree with most.
Firstly – you couldn’t compare France to NZ on purely temperamental grounds – I was speaking at length with somebody this week about how CONSISTENT and for that matter how RUTHLESS the All Blacks are. I can’t think of one actually ‘bad’ game the AB’s have ever played – I can’t think of one ‘bad’ team they have ever had. If you want to beat them you have to be at your very best for the WHOLE game or they will kill you. That there is the reason they are the best – their mentality is unbelievable.
That is is the main difference – French temperament is exasperating to say the least and often they get the ‘surrender ******’ tag which is simplistic and a disgusting thing to say when we know how courageous they can be. You just never know when they will come to play; but watch out when they do. (The AB players and management knew that prior to the WC final, but it seems the national population thought it would be a walk over).
But the their actual play is different. The thing to say, of many things, about NZ play is how techically good it is in every department; pretty close to perfection. And, having toured South Island, I can see where they get their physicality. But the play itself is different and you want to read how Josh Kronfeld describes their play (when they are playing) – as it being more about “movement and swell” than technique, even a symphony (it’s a fascinating observation) – a very strange thing; and that strange enigmatic mind of theirs. He rolled up for French Barbarians to play the Boks – nobody interested in team talk beforehand or discussing the game; lots of them smoking Gaullois cigarettes and one fellow player drinking 12 espressos in the morning before – fitness fanatic Kronfeld was horrified and thought they were going to their death. French Barbarians won. No rhyme nor reason. The only clue you’ll get of what is coming is if any of the forwards are crying during the national anthem. That usually means the passion is up and they are coming to play.
No rhyme nor reason – so that for me is why they are a more interesting side, intellectually – for all their brilliance – and you guys are brilliant mate – it sort of is predictable (much like Bradman batting) – and finally, Ireland are another team that can play awfully and whereas 60-0 is murder, not quite the same, nor as impressive, as 33-6 vs the Wallabies who we both know have huge ticker and fight to the end, which they did in Paris. They just had no answer – the Frogs were unbelievable – their best game since 1999 WC semi-final.
12 Nov 2012, 10:54 am
The All Blacks can thank their lucky stars Michalak was in the wilderness in 2011, otherwise the Web Ellis Cup might have been standing in Paris.
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