Thomas Darracq hails France squad depth as they set up New Zealand showdown

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.”