LYON France, like the traffic around Ol’s majestic Groupama stadium at full capacity, stopped this evening for the match against the Azzurri which closes Poule A and which is worth, on paper, passage to the quarter-finals. There are 55 thousand faithful who make the stands tremble with “Allez les bleus” to which 5 thousand Italians respond with “It must be because I love you” proposed with a lot of imagination by the stadium DJ. Who are the Rich and who are the Poor in rugby tonight is alas known: everything suggests a formality for Fabien Galthie’s Blues who, as always, will take a hundred steps on the stadium lawn before the kick-off. A ritual that the Transalpine coach does not give up even when the forecast is so blatantly in favor of his team. Of course, there is no shortage of pressure on his shoulders, because the French, in this formal round of 16 match created by the calendar, must win by playing well to convince themselves that they will be able to face world champion South Africa in the quarter-finals with a good chance of continuing the race towards the final victory.
The collapse
To find some streaks of blue on the lawn of the Ol Stadium in Lyon, which was boiling and making the majestic stands tremble, you had to wait 25 minutes during which the French had already disposed of the match to their maximum pleasure. We are at 24-0 because Les Bleus, the absolute masters of the match, scored already in the 2nd minute with Penaud, doubling the score in the 13th minute with Bielle-Biarrey and tripling it in the 21st minute with Ramos who also scored a penalty in the free time left to him by the Azzurri . Or again the nightmare of a week ago when the All Blacks were racing over the remains of the Italians, scoring with an average of more than one point per minute. A disaster: it looked like a match between a senior team and an under 20 team. Since they had few balls, the Azzurri also gave away three touches and a scrum to the Bleus who insisted just enough to create a breach in a defense that missed a quarter of tackles, an enormity for a Six Nations team. No reaction of pride, no revolt against the inevitable prediction. Here, in this disastrous situation, in the 25th minute Ange Capuozzo (who else if not the most French of Italians, L’Equipe dixit?) opened a crack in the blue wall and launched the veteran Allan who arrived at full throttle.
THE SHOCK
Had he not held the ball with one hand as if he were a Fijian and not an Englishman from Vicenza, the fly-half would have reached the goal, but behind him the twenty-year-old Bielle-Biarrey showed up and gave him a spiteful slap. dropping the ball forward. Disconcerting. “I was looking for support and I wanted to pass the ball from above to Ange” then explained the Italian veteran whose face and soul were marked by the defeat.
A missed assist, but at least Italy showed that it finally existed. The French retreated, or perhaps caught their breath, and then the Azzurri persisted until scoring a magnificent try with Ferrari in the 36th minute by dint of headers.
Actually no, the English referee Dickson, who had awarded the goal with clear certainty, was fascinated by the boos of the public and asked for the TMO. But no goal, because Ferrari himself had given Lucu a high shoulder in the previous phase. Nothing much, really, but it was enough for Dickson to nullify the score.
On the reverse, Jalibert’s magical volley for Penaud, or 31-0. For Italy, however, also the bitterness of the exit of Ange Capuozzo who in the 30th minute had suffered a blow to his left eye.
“Allez les Bleus” insisted immediately at the start of the second half of the 53 thousand faithful not yet satisfied by the merciless toreades of the French who resumed scoring goals with Jalibert, a phenomenon who is even the reserve midfielder, Mauvaka and Moefana: 52-0, seven goals to zero in the 63rd minute, another failure without appeal for a team entrusted to coach Crowley, celebrated without regard by the federation already in June, and then on the eve of the Cup announced, by the president Marzio Innocenti himself, as capable of putting the team in difficulty All Blacks and France.
Perhaps in another film, unfortunately, not in the one screened during these failed World Cups in which the blue Zuliani managed at least to deserve a closing title by forcefully scoring the goal to make it 52-7 in the 71st minute. Curtain with the eighth French try (Moefana again) and Ramos’ penalty for the final 60-7. Between points conceded, tries conceded and worst total deficit, this is the worst World Cup since this 20-team formula existed (2003). A result that imposes clear choices on the Federation which in the meantime could begin to show its face without leaving, for the second consecutive defeat, only a coach deemed no longer suitable for the growth of this young group and a captain covered in bruises. From bombastic prophecies, creators of miserably nuanced illusions, to the sense of responsibility.
Poule A ranking: France 18, New Zealand 15; Italy 10; Uruguay 5; Namibia 0. France and New Zealand advance to the quarter-finals. Italy qualified for the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
The France-Italy scoreboard
Markers: 2′ m. Penaud tr. Ramos (7-0), 7′ cp Ramos (10-0), 14′ m. Bielle-Biarrey tr. Ramos (17-0), 22′ m. Ramos tr. Ramos (24-0), 37′ m. Penaud tr. Ramos (31-0), 48′ m. Jalibert tr. Ramos (38-0), 54′ m. Mauvaka tr. Ramos (45-0), 63′ m. Moefana tr. Jaminet (52-0), 70′ m. Zuliani tr. Allan (52-7), 76′ m. Moefana (57-7), 80′ cp Jaminet (60-7)
France: 15 Thomas Ramos (Jaminet 60), Damian Penaud 14, Gael Fickou 13 (Moefana 61), Jonathan Danty 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Matthieu Jalibert 10, Maxime Lucu (Couilloud 55) Gregory Alldritt , 7 Charles Ollivon (55′ Cros) (c), 6 Anthony Jelonch, 5 Thibaud Flament (45′ Taofifenua), 4 Cameron Woki, 3 Uini Atonio (45′ Aldegheri), 2 Peato Mauvaka (55′ Bourgarit), 1 Cyril Baille (55′ Ward)
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo (30′ Pani), 14 Pierre Bruno (52′ Morisi), 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Paolo Garbisi, 11 Montanna Ioane, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Stephen Varney (44′ Fusco), 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (44′ Zuliani), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone (56′ Sisi), 3 Pietro Ceccarelli (56′ Riccioni), 2 Hame Faiva (60′ Manfredi), 1 Simone Ferrari (60′ Zani)
Referee: Karl Dickson (England)
Assistants: Luke Pearce (England), Craig Evans (Wales)
TMO: Marius Jonker (Sudafrica)
The wait
LYON Will the blue fine ceramic vase smashed into shards by the All Blacks a week ago and repaired with thin gold veins by coach Kieran Crowley, who from Saturday will still be Italy’s former coach, be more precious than before? The New Zealander will move to Japan where the art of fixing with gold (kintsugi) was born, but in the meantime he found himself rebuilding a team mentally and physically pulverized by New Zealand (96-17) and expected today again in Lyon by equally popular opponents: the French who aim to win their first world cup. An enormous task, moreover for a coach who was celebrated without too much consideration by the Federation already in June, not exactly the best way to preserve him some credit towards the young Azzurri.
«Italy is better than the one we saw against the All Blacks and will be capable of putting us in difficulty» said the Les Bleus coach, Fabien Galthie, who deploys the best he has and who in recent days is always in direct contact with the president Macron, because the World Cup is a damn serious matter in France which will also host the Olympics next year.
We are all convinced that the Italians are better: in two years with Crowley the Azzurri (lowest average age in the World Cup) have grown and have the means to slow down the French battleship as they did in February in Rome in the Six Nations (24-29 ), but then came the blow with the “all blacks” which erased every certainty.
The bookies have no doubts as they remember that in 47 matches we have only won 3, the last one ten years ago: morally, France’s victory today is not paid for while the Italian one is worth 17 to 23 times the stake. Here the curtain could have fallen even without remembering that on paper (vellum) it is an “in or out” match, a round of 16 match and whoever loses will not go to the quarterfinals.
An intersection due in reality only to the “Poule A” calendar built to keep Italy alive as much as possible, which has never reached those “quarterfinals” in 9 World Cups. How then can Italy save face this evening in front of 60 thousand faithful and the rest of the world, moreover in luxurious live prime time on Rai2?
That is, how can he make the French sweat until the end by not collecting a fee over 30 points on the finally cool evening in Lyon?
Crowley hopes that the new front line Ferrari, Faiva, Ceccarelli will hold up, that Lamaro and Negri will tackle relentlessly and that stars of the French top league (Top 14) such as Paolo Garbisi (now first centre), Allan (opener) and Capuozzo (fullback ) play as they are capable.
Then, yes, it’s a question of the head, of pride, of the blue shirt to honor and it was certainly a good idea for the players to go yesterday to visit the Guillotiere Cemetery in Lyon where 71 of the over 5,000 fallen have been buried for 105 years Italians in France in the Great War. There were 60 thousand infantrymen from the Royal Army who in 1918 left unexpectedly with the II Army Corps to trudge through the mud of the French trenches: Paris wanted a concrete sign of the alliance with the Italians. More than 5 thousand did not return.
Paolo Ricci Bitti
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1970-01-01 00:00:00
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