France ran through and around the Flying Fijians in Lyon this morning, securing a 54-17 win in their Nations Championship clash.
Having held a commanding 26-3 lead at halftime, the hosts raked in a total of seven tries, to claim a bonus point win as well.
That win sees them moving to the top of the points table in the European pool, ahead of Ireland, England, Wales and Italy.
Fiji, under new coach Jake White, promised to deliver a top performance for their fans but they were left catching thin air for the majority of the game as the French outfit turned the heat up and took control of the game.
While the Fijians stuck to their guns for the first 14 minutes, continued infringements across the field saw them get penalised.
Lock forward Mesake Vocevoce spent 10 minutes on the sideline after he was yellow carded in the first half for collapsing a French maul.
Captain Tevita Ikanivere pointed to that incident and others which gave possession away for them, as the major downfalls of their game.
“I think we started well,” Ikanivere said after the game.
“But ill-discipline let us down. We gave Frane early opportunities.
“We talked about having a good start, but we got a yellow card and then we were on the back foot.”
Ikanivere said with Ireland as their next opponent in the series, the team will need to turn around quickly and improve.
French fullback Theo Attissogbe said they knew Fiji would be tough and he was happy the team managed to stick to their game plan and won in the end.
“We know that Fiji was a solid team and the players put in a really strong performance to win.
“We knew it was going to be physical out there but we managed to play the game that we wanted.”
His captain and player of the match Antoine Dupont said they had prepared well for the game, knowing what Fiji was capable of.
“Yeah, we tried to win the game, we tried to have a good kicking game,” he said.
“But it wasn’t an easy task and it was a tough game.
“We started the game in a very good way and we were able to maintain that throughout the game.”
France kicked off after the Fijians had laid the pre-match challenge with their ‘cibi’ led by Peni Ravai.
French dominance
The early feel-outs went for about 14 minutes before Jean-Baptiste Gros dived over the Fijian line to score the first try of the game in the 15th minute.
In the 22nd minute Paul Boudehent was driven over the tryline from lineout maul after Luke Tagi was caught offside. Fiji’s Vocevoce was caught guilty for collapsing the maul and was sent off the field, with France getting a penalty try.
Fijian halfback Simione Kuruvoli slotted a penalty over but France replied with a try to Sipili Falatea in the 33rd minute, crashing over tacklers Nathan Hughes and Eroni Mawi.
Aaron Grandidier Nkanang got one try in to for the local side as they led 26-3 at the break.
France dominated the second half battle with Kalvin Gourgues, Theo Attissogbe, Charles Ollivon and Dupont getting their names also on the try scoring sheet.
Fiji replied with two tries of their own through Vinaya Habosi and Selesitino Ravutaumada.
France got extra points through the boots of Kalvin Gourgue, who kicked a conversion and replacement Maxime Lucu, who managed to slot in five conversions for a personal tally of 10 points in the game.
Fiji’s Kuruvoli managed with a penalty kick while replacement flyhalf Ben Volavola succeeded with two conversions.
Former England number eight Nathan Hughes made an impressive debut for Fiji, making some good runs with ball in hand.
Halfback Frank Lomani and Volavola played their 50th caps for Fiji during the clash.
The Flying Fijians will now prepare to meet Ireland next weekend.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand All Blacks scored a 43-21 win over Scotland at Murrayfield earlier this morning.
Try-scorers for the All Blacks were Wallace Sititi, Ethan de Groot, Peter Lakai, Beauden Barrett, who got two, Josh Moorby and Asafo Aumua.
