Fabien Galthie’s ‘nervous’ France survive Uruguay challenge in Rugby World Cup

LILLE – France coach Fabien Galthie admitted that Uruguay had made the Rugby World Cup hosts “uncomfortable” in Thursday’s 27-12 Pool A win in Lille.

Les Bleus failed to claim a bonus point as they had only three tries, and needed a 73rd-minute try from youngster Louis Bielle-Biarrey to make sure of a second victory in the tournament.

“The players were frustrated in the changing room. We will try and understand the points to improve,” Galthie said.

“We had a France team that were nervous, that were trying too hard. We were made uncomfortable by Uruguay, but we still won and we’re still satisfied.”

The coach had made 12 changes from last week’s competition-opening win over New Zealand.

No. 8 Anthony Jelonch took over the captaincy from Antoine Dupont in his first game since suffering a serious knee injury in late February, and he was one of those who felt that France were fortunate to win.

“It was a difficult match. They (the Uruguayans) were very keen, they were very aggressive and made it hard for us,” the stand-in skipper said.

One of the main reasons for their struggles was because their scrum, coached by former hooker William Servat, was penalised often by referee Ben O’Keeffe.

However, Galthie refused to comment on the New Zealander’s officiating.

They lost four of their 14 scrums with the coach changing five of his pack with half an hour to play in attempt to improve matters.

“I don’t want to speak about refereeing,” Galthie said.

“It’s such an important part of the game. The scrum was rewarded at times and punished at others. We’ll go back to basics and look for improvements with William.”

France conceded 15 penalties against Los Teros in total, 11 more than against the All Blacks.

“It’s a huge number. It’s almost unacceptable at international level,” lock Cameron Woki said.

“You could say we were lucky to win the game. It’s a shame. We had worked hard (on discipline). We wanted to do something good, but we just showed we were an ill-disciplined team.

“It’s very frustrating. We struggled in the scrums. We knew we were better, but then we were not patient.”

France were never fully in control at the Pierre-Mauroy Stadium, but prevailed with tries from Antoine Hastoy, Peato Mauvaka and Bielle-Biarrey with the rest of the points coming from the boot of the reliable Melvyn Jaminet.

Uruguay scored two fine tries by Nicolas Freitas and Baltazar Amaya as Felipe Etcheverry could kick only one conversion.

Les Bleus, who lead Pool A with eight points, next face Namibia on Thursday in Marseille before ending their pool-stage campaign against Italy on Oct 6.

With two wins from two, the world No. 3 team are in line to reach the quarter-finals despite failing to claim a bonus point against their 17th-ranked opponents.

“There are a lot of things to look at, but we will keep the victory in mind. We have to get back to work, it’s a World Cup... We play again in a week, we have to put things right,” France fly-half Hastoy said.

Uruguay coach Esteban Meneses, meanwhile, was satisfied with his team’s performance and said the key was to build on it and not make it a one-off.

“We were able to show today that we are on the right track. The key element is the confidence of this group, who believe in themselves,” he said.

“If we now manage to face more big teams, with the level which we have, we will continue to progress.

“When we saw the order of matches in the draw, our objective was to play on an equal footing with France.

“We showed we could do it. We now want to reproduce it.”
AFP, REUTERS