Six Nations: France XV closes with victory against Wales and dreams of miracle in Dublin.

Their part of the job is done; Now their fate no longer depends on them. Big winners over Wales at the Stade de France on Saturday 18 March (41-28), the France XV finished the 2023 edition of the Six Nations tournament in style. A week on from their big win at Twickenham, the Blues, winners of four out of five games in the competition, will regain the lead in the competition. Provisional classification, they know, awaits the result of the final match of this fifth day, later in the afternoon, between Ireland, who are chasing a Grand Slam, and England, who are looking for redemption. We can still hope for a favorable outcome, but we have no cards in our hands.French coach Fabien Galtier said in an interview on France 2 after the meeting. Defeated in Dublin the next day (19-32), his troops must have misplaced the trophy bought last year on the Verte Erin.

But before hoping for an improbable ‘St Patrick’s weekend miracle’, Antoine Dupont’s team-mates had to overcome a resurgent Welshman. Was it the victory in Italy that blew away the clouds of the threat of the wooden spoon – which ‘rewards’ a team by losing every match in the tournament? Or the announcement of an agreement reached with the Welsh authorities on new contracts, signaling the end of the structural crisis in Welsh rugby? Nevertheless, the team-mates of the totemic Alun Wyn-Jones (37 years old and 17 tournaments to his credit) started the game as the outcasts.

And the Blues found themselves in a corner from the start. “This team has always impressed me with their virtues, players who put their bodies on the line and they martyred the French XV for a long time.”, warned the tricolor coach on Thursday, cautioning against pressuring the Welsh. true Eight minutes into the game, George North came on to cap off a fine start for the Lekki XV by registering the first try of the game. A logical reward for Warren Gatland’s players.

The blues relearned the sting

But the tricolor did not hesitate to react. After a long breakthrough from Romain Ntamak, the opening half faked a pass to his stud team-mate Dupont to put winger Damian Penault into orbit. France’s recent top scorer at the tournament never misses a chance to convert a corner – and with that effort the French winger has now scored against each of the five nations in the competition.