hung by Italy (13-13), France sinks into crisis – Libération

After leading for a long time, the French were caught behind following the exclusion of Jonathan Danty. The Blues saw their hopes disappear, already slim after their defeat against Ireland, of winning the trophy.

The last time was on a mild autumn evening in Lyon. 60-7, eight tries to one, a crushing victory for France against Italy, then validated qualification for the quarter-finals of the World Cup, in a joy that we refused to ignore. imagine that nine days later, she could have given birth to the bitterest of disappointments.

Change of scenery, this Sunday February 25, 2024, further north, in a Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, on the outskirts of Lille, with a closed roof (despite a gray yet very harmless) confirming that the spring hatchings are not for today, but perhaps for tomorrow, who knows?

Were we actually going to take the same ones and start again, at the conclusion of a third day of the Six Nations Tournament, marked by Ireland’s flawless performance (third victory in a row with five points, against Wales this time), and a spectacular Scottish success against England? After an illusory start to the World Cup, Italy, eliminated from the group stage, restarted its usual cycle of defeats, often resembling shocks. As for France, despite a facade speech which fools no one (Grégory Alldritt, absent captain, a few days before the northern meeting, in the Team : “I don’t see a group that doubts”), previously so serene, she finds herself groping, in search of new benchmarks. Which Italy, as a courteous visitor, therefore had to provide to its defending body.

Une Petite Culotte (“it was Loli / It was Lolo / It was Lola”), one of the ponderous anthems of the oval, softly taken up by the audience filling the bays) before a big beating inflicted on a Squadra Azzura so pale that it played in white? Well no. Not really. And the worst is that at 13-13, a match that will be pleonastically too easy – and yet so sadly fair – to qualify as a draw, France gets away with it again miraculously, facing his salvation, in this case only the most relative, to an Italian penalty crushed on the post after the end of regular time, after Paolo Garbisi had to try twice to hit it in a hurry, following a ball that accidentally fell off the tee.

Incredible draft

The first half was incredibly messy, with the French domination quickly overwhelming (that’s fair to say, given the weight of the pack) from the forwards nevertheless canceled out by the lack of inspiration from the rears committing a festival of blunders. With a try scored quickly by Charles Ollivon, we could nevertheless imagine, even if it was a misunderstanding, that the mist caused by a fireworks display as preliminary as it was untimely fired before the start sending was going to dissipate pretty quickly. But it was the opposite: feverish, imprecise (by hand, as by foot), these Blues had only themselves to blame for not having definitively sealed the match at the break. Worse, undermined by the lack of confidence, they even lost in the last movement, Jonathan Danty, again out in the Tournament for ten minutes, then definitively, after the bunker verdict (which, indeed, after ¨s that of Paul Willemse, the second red card in three matches for France!), allowing even Italy, which had little more than its self-sacrifice to oppose, not to be there ¢chear the score. At 10-3, nothing was done. The second half even saw the game become more balanced, with Italy intelligently slowing down the game in the rucks, as if allowing itself certain boldness, thanks to numerical superiority risk which, conversely, increasingly threatened the Blues (who had lost Matthieu Jalibert, hitherto bad, to injury, in the 35th minute) of an official shipwreck, due to ©finally avoided in extremis.

Before this northern France-Italy, ugly and shameful as possible, the Blues had 45 victories, against three defeats against their opponents of the day (who, let’s remember, were coming off a 36-0 loss in Ireland!) . This draw is therefore a first. Since 2007, the winner of the match also leaves with the Giuseppe Garibaldi trophy, which, as a result, the nations will share this year, announced a female voice in the stadium sound system. Who had already emptied himself when the two captains came to complete the usual formalities.