New Zealand 76 - 3 France

I can honestly say this has to be the worst team in history that has eeked it's way into the final of a major tournament.

The winner of tomorrow's 2nd semi will be licking its lips like a fat cat let loose in a room full of mice.

Losing 2 games (ONE TO TONGA!), scoring 9 points and no tries against a team with 14 men. France have already been stuffed by NZ once this tournament.

I hope the All Blacks win tomorrow, but whoever else makes the final is going to be having Le Coq for breakfast next Saturday.

I dunno, England 07 were universally panned for being awful...

France might win it. You'd get a lot of money with a bet on them right now. They are French after all so might be amazing in the final!

It is not about the style of rugby that a team wins by, it is about the amount of points one team gets than the other.
FRANCE GOT "9" points WALES GOT "8" POINTS.

France scored ONE MORE POINT THAN WALES DID.THEREFORE France win the game. ok.

It's going to be France v Aus anyway folks.

NZ might put that score on Wales in the 3rd/4th place game. If they're still bothered by then that is.

Dont count your chickens, Wayne BArnes is the only ref left not in the witness protection programme....

majesticimperialman wrote:It is not about the style of rugby that a team wins by, it is about the amount of points one team gets than the other.
FRANCE GOT "9" points WALES GOT "8" POINTS.

France scored ONE MORE POINT THAN WALES DID.THEREFORE France win the game. ok.

The point is though that 15 man France couldn't create anything against 14 man Wales for around an hour of the game. How on earth do they expect to do against 15 All Blacks. On the performance today they'll get beaten soundly. But as always, France being France, they may have a big performance up their sleeves. The Hyde to their tournament's Jekyll.

Griff wrote:The point is though that 15 man France couldn't create anything against 14 man Wales for around an hour of the game. How on earth do they expect to do against 15 All Blacks.

Did they really make much of an effort to? When Warburton went off you saw a change come over the French side. They knew they were pretty much guaranteed the game and put the brakes on, playing ultra conservative, trying not to exert themselves too much, with an eye on the final. Changing their front row (in particular Servat, one of their best performers in the first half) straight after HT spoke volumes.

I'm not saying they'll beat whoever they meet in the final (they won't), or that they would have won against Wales if it was 15 v 15, but I do think they would have played with more purpose than we saw if they hadn't felt the game was pretty much in the bag.

They did breifly try and nearly overan Wales, but once Wales held them off and started pressuring back they went to pieces again. I dont beleive they have any fight.
When they played NZ they came out all full off p21ss and vinegar ...but when they somehow failed to turn that into points they fell apart and got beaten at a canter. Same against England...except they did convert the early pressure into points...but once England got rolling they soon went off the boil and somehow let England back into the game.

They are capable of some decent play, but havent yet been showing the application to sustain it for 40 minutes let alone 80. Playing 20 minutes of good rugby wont beat NZ, unless theres another Wayne Barnes reffing display.

Whichever side gets to play them will be huge favourites.

hawalsh wrote:

Griff wrote:The point is though that 15 man France couldn't create anything against 14 man Wales for around an hour of the game. How on earth do they expect to do against 15 All Blacks.

Did they really make much of an effort to? When Warburton went off you saw a change come over the French side. They knew they were pretty much guaranteed the game and put the brakes on, playing ultra conservative, trying not to exert themselves too much, with an eye on the final. Changing their front row (in particular Servat, one of their best performers in the first half) straight after HT spoke volumes.

I'm not saying they'll beat whoever they meet in the final (they won't), or that they would have won against Wales if it was 15 v 15, but I do think they would have played with more purpose than we saw if they hadn't felt the game was pretty much in the bag.

Are you saying they deliberately didn't try to forge home the advantage and bury Wales. What a stupid mistake that nearly was. A man advantage for an hour and they nearly lost, had it not been for a kick being half a metre short. That would have been a huge blunder. Personally I think that they were not good enough to get the ball, keep hold of it and wear down the 14 men in front of them, which does not bode well for the final.

Stupid or not, it's a classic French approach. If they think they don't have to try that hard, they don't. And yes, it often gets them into trouble. At club level Biarritz are classic exponents (a team two of the key French players, Yachvilli & Harinordoquy, are leaders of).

The game next week (which I fully expect France to lose, I'm not saying this is a great performing team, just better than today's showing) will be more telling of the side's capabilities.

Nice to see the OP isn't bitter! Dear me I thought the English were bad losers

Have to admit France havnt displayed finals abilities.
Yet they remain as the biggest upsetters in the tournament. Somehow, by doing not a lot, they find themselves in the final.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Dont count your chickens, Wayne BArnes is the only ref left not in the witness protection programme....

Not in Scotland he isn't .....

The semi-final is going to be a lot tougher than the Final.

Not for the french it aint laurie... Not for the french

People always say that the french are capable of one great game in a world cup - so will their great game be the final? Though at the moment it seems hard to believe that this particular french team have the ability to play well at all - apart from a 20 minute period against england they have been truly awful for the entire tournament.

rugbyfan wrote:People always say that the french are capable of one great game in a world cup - so will their great game be the final? Though at the moment it seems hard to believe that this particular french team have the ability to play well at all - apart from a 20 minute period against england they have been truly awful for the entire tournament.

See everyone does raise their game for England

If France win the Cup then what do we make of this years tournament, they have lost to Tonga!

seen the game then alyn?

walesworldcup wrote:I can honestly say this has to be the worst team in history that has eeked it's way into the final of a major tournament.

The winner of tomorrow's 2nd semi will be licking its lips like a fat cat let loose in a room full of mice.

Losing 2 games (ONE TO TONGA!), scoring 9 points and no tries against a team with 14 men. France have already been stuffed by NZ once this tournament.

I hope the All Blacks win tomorrow, but whoever else makes the final is going to be having Le Coq for breakfast next Saturday.

By the end of the first half

France made the final as the won the games they needed to...

-beat enough teams and scored enough points to qualify
-beat England
-beat Wales

If people are making a meal of their Tonga match then they should equally dismiss the teams they lost to.

I mean: Tonga beat France. France beat England and Wales. If France are bad how bad are Wales and England?

Bit silly really...