1
Thomas Darracq hails France squad depth as they set up New Zealand showdown
By PA
France coach Thomas Darracq hailed the depth in his squad after a big second half powered them into the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup with a 39-3 win over Italy.
Winger Joanna Grisez claimed a hat-trick in a dominant France performance that sets up a last-four meeting with hosts New Zealand.
“We are in the semi-finals of the World Cup, this is excellent news,” Darracq said in L’Equipe. “Our first objective was to qualify in the last four. Scoring nearly 40 points against Italy is a great performance.”
Italy kept it close in the first half, trailing 10-3 at the break after Grisez scored her first try early on, but were blown away in the second half – with Darracq crediting the replacements for the impact they had on the game.
“We are really lucky to have a homogeneous squad,” Darracq added. “When they came in, the replacements showed a lot of speed. It was an objective – to maintain our speed to the end.
“It is very important that the whole group is involved in order to go for victory…
“The message at half-time was to be patient. We knew we had an edge on the Italian team but we wanted to go too fast. The score at half-time should have been more, but we asked the players to play closer to the line, to attack the spaces where Italy were waiting to counter.
“We still have room for improvement but despite everything the scoreline is there and there is great satisfaction.”
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' weaknesses
3
All Blacks player ratings vs Italy
4
Scotland's Sione Tuipulotu admits anger at Australian rugby
5
Latest Comments
Perenara is super woke, the treaty of long ago is irrelevant to a game of rugby in Italy. By referencing it and claiming the countries going through tough times is clearly because Perenara doesn't agree with the democratically elected government of New Zealand that people from all ethnicities voted for. Perenara is making it divisive and political despite many of his team mates that wouldn't agree with his decision. The Allblacks saved this year's worst performance to combine it with the most divisive haka statement. Perhaps it's overdue now for NZ rugby to leave the haka for home games only, ensure that only the players that want to do it are included and never again have 'insertions' added by political activist players.
Go to commentsI expected a larger win than this and the ABs were off slightly whilst the rested Italians were well up for this and gave a real committed performance
Frustrating but a lot of those ABs forwards have done huge minutes this tour and Italy are not the side from the World Cup
Remember they beat wales and Scotland in the 6N
Drew with France and lost to England by 3
Go to comments