France are still on track to take their first Grand Slam since 2004 after they scored six tries to beat Italy 46-20 in the Six Nations game at the Stade de France.
The hosts ran in six tries through Imanol Harinordoquy, Yannick Jauzion, Marc Andreu, Alexandre Lapandry, and two by David Marty. Morgan Parra kicked 16 points while Italy only managed two late tries.
Italian centre Gonzalo Garcia was yellow carded by Irish referee Alan Lewis for an illegal block on French winger Andreu, making it his second yellow card in the tournament this season, following the match against Ireland.
The win for France now sets up a Grand Slam finale against England at the Stade de France next weekend. “After scoring those three tries we lacked a certain amount of intensity and discipline which we cannot do against England,” said eighthman Harinodoquy.
“Obivously we are very very happy to have beaten Italy, who are regardless of the result a hard team to play against. We know it is not easy to play against Italy and they showed how they can play in the second half, scoring two tries.
“But generally I think we did what we had to do to win the match and I think it was a great game to watch for the supporters,” he said.
Italys coach, Nick Mallet, was frank about his teams poor performance.
“That is the worst we have played for a year. The first-half couldn’t have been worse. A lot of players played their worst match for a long time and we made France look better than they are,” he said.
“I don’t think they’ll score tries that easily against England because we missed very simple tackles. But the French are a very good team, the best in this championship. They will win the Grand Slam.”
Time:
05:24
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