France claim flairless victory

It was third time lucky for France in Rome as they claimed a 29-0 victory over Italy in an uneventful scrap-fest.

Rugby played like this is not a beautiful game. In the players' defence Rome was cold and wet on Sunday afternoon and one felt sorry for the huge crowd in the Stadio Olímpico. It was a match in which there was one moment of glory and for the rest a catalogue  of errors. Whatever errors rugby football is capable of – they were there in numbers. The result was a match almost totally devoid of creative ability.

Not that Italy are prone to creative ability even on the fairest of days though this year they have been a tad more adventurous, and French flair is a myth somewhere in the past. Italy may have had an excuse as they lost two flyhalves.

First-choice Kelly Haimona was forced to withdraw because of injury. Tommaso Allan came up from the bench to start but while practising his kicking in the warm-up he hurt his groin. But nonetheless he started  but in missing Italy's first kick at goal, he hurt it again and eventually left to be replaced by Luciano Orquera whose outstanding play on the day was dismally poor kicking.

The one great moment happened five minutes into the second half. Orquera had room to kick and did so. New cap French wing, Fijian Noa Nakaitaci, gave the ball to his fullback, Scott Spedding, a South African playing his first season for France. Spedding, always eager to run with the ball, took of from a metre inside his 22 and raced down the field. On the Italian 10-metre line he passed inside to new French No.8, Loann Goujon. Goujon gave to hooker Guilhem Guirado who was tackled. France won the ball back and Sébastien Tillous-Borde gave to 20-year-old Gael Fickou who passed to Yoann Huget who fixed the Italian defenders before giving to lock Yoann Maestri who pounded ahead and scored his first try for France.

It was a brilliant moment. In the dullness of this Rome match, it was the rugby equivalent of Bernini's Gloria.

Before the match there were the wonderful anthems and then silence to honour the three French athletes killed in the helicopter crash in Argentina. Then came this match.

In this match, handling was appalling. Kicking out of hand was a meaningless exercise, except for the profit France got from an Italian boot. Goal kicking was poor. Five goal-kickers were used – Tommaso Allan, who missed one, and Orquera, who missed one, for Italy; Scott Spedding, who missed one, Camille Lopez and Jules Plisson for France.

Italy started well enough, dominating possession and territory but then Allan missed a kick from in front and then Orquera hit an upright and gradually the enthusiasm seemed to ebb.

France, whose brightest moment had been a dash down the left by wing Nakaitaci but that fizzled out when Sergio Parisse pushed him into touch.

In a match of 27 penalties, Spedding took France's first kick at goal because it was a long one, but he missed.

Then came a sad penalty. Leonardo Ghiraldini lost the ball forward, straight to the midriff of Samuela Vunisa who dropped it like a hot potato but was penalised in front of his posts – a penalty worth just a scrum. Lopez goaled and France led 3-0 after 28 minutes.

Francesco Minto was penalised at a tackle and Lopez made it 6-0 after 34 minutes.

Just on half-time, when Lopez had a sore knee, Spedding goaled a scrum penalty to make the score at the break 9-0.

Lopez did not come back after the break but was replaced by Plisson who had a kick as his first act when Parisse was penalised at a tackle. Plisson goaled from in front. 12-0 after 41 minutes.

Then came the try – match's glittering moment. In fact it would have been an excellent try even on a fine day of sparkling rugby. That made the score 19-0 after 45 minutes.

Italy had some attacking moments. Wing Leonardo Sarto, the one Italian player who looked enthusiastic, tackled two French players and Tillous-Borde was penalised for holding on in an easily kickable position but Orquera kicked out for a six-metre line-out.  Italy lost the line-out.

France ran an Orquera kick and Giovanbattista Venditti was penalised for not clearing out of the tackle. Plisson goaled. 22-0 after 57 minutes.

Twice France kicked out for five-metre line-outs. They lost one and one had little effect.

Italy turned two penalties into attacking line-outs. France repelled the first and were penalised and France won a turnover at the second and cleared.

France had a seven-metre line-out from a penalty but threw in skew.

Then Italy were penalised at their posts and the game broke out in a rollicking succession of scrums that ended in a try. By this time France were destroying Italian scrummaging. Italy were penalised at the first scrum and France opted for another scrum. Italy were penalised at that scrum on the five-metre line, and France tapped and there was Mathieu Bastaraud forcing his way all of three metres to score at the posts. Plisson converted and mercy came down in Rome in the angelic sound of the final whistle.

Man of the Match: Scott Spedding of St John's College in Johannesburg. He was light in dreary darkness.

Scorers:

For Italy: None

For France:

Tries: Maestri, Bastareaud

Cons: Plisson 2

Pens: Lopez 2, Spedding, Plisson 2

Teams:

Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Andrea Masi, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Kelly Haimona, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Samuela Vunisa, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Josh Furno, 4 George Biagi, 3 Dario Chistolini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Matias Aguero.

Replacements: 16 Andrea Manici, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Quintin Geldenhuys, 20 Marco Barbini, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Tommaso Allan, 23 Enrico Bacchin.

France: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Sebastian Tillous-Borde, 8 Loann Goujon, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Alexandre Flanquart, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Eddy Ben Arous.

Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Damien Chouly, 21 Rory Kockott, 22 Jules Plisson, 23 Mathieu Bastareaud.

Referee: JP Doyle (England)

Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Luke Pearce  (England)

TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland)