FRANCE have finally won away from home in the Six Nations and it came on the back of their best attacking performance under Guy Noves.
Desperate to avoid dropping to ninth in the World Rugby standings and face a potential ‘pool of death’ at the 2019 World Cup, France, who hadn’t won outside of Paris in their last five Championship games, were under pressure to do so and it showed with a shaky start to the game.
Italy were looking to build on a solid performance at Twickenham two weeks ago, as controversial as it was, and scored an early Sergio Parisse try at Stadio Olimpico but their inability to turn opportunities into points cost them while their defensive line struggled to handle France fire- power out wide.
Les Bleus were still guilty of attempting too many unnecessary offloads but they found big gaps out wide and when they picked their battles better, and looked after the ball, they proved far too much to handle for the Italians.
Gael Fickou, outstanding in midfield all game, Virimi Vakatawa, Louis Picamoles and Brice Dulin got the French tries while Camille Lopez was faultless from the tee.
This story is from the March 12, 2017 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the March 12, 2017 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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