Wales 12, France 54: Wales handed a rugby lesson amid Cardiff apathy

Simon Thomas

So, for those people who did turn up at the Principality Stadium, there could be no complaints over the quality of rugby they got to see.

The problem was it came from the visitors who delivered a mesmerising masterclass.

It was simply “magnifique” and a privilege to be at the ground to watch it.

Yet the French aren’t in town every week and another heavy defeat will do little to encourage ticket sales for Wales’ two remaining home games in the Championship.

This was a contest played out in front of the lowest ever crowd for a Six Nations match in Cardiff on the back of all the turmoil both on and off the field in Welsh rugby.

There was to be more woe again on the pitch as Wales conceded a record number of points to France, with the 51 leaked at Wembley in 1998 being surpassed.

It’s the fifth time in under a year they have shipped more than 50 points at home, while it’s just two wins from the last 25 Test matches and 13 successive Six Nations defeats.

As for Steve Tandy’s reign, that’s now 302 points and 42 tries conceded in his six games in charge, with the Welsh line crossed eight more times today.

Those are figures which don’t make for pleasant reading.

The same goes for the attendance stats.

The build-up to the game had been dominated by talk about unsold tickets and what the size of the crowd was likely to be.

In the end, the total was 57,744.

The expectation had been that we were on course for the lowest crowd for a Wales-France Six Nations match in Cardiff.

The previous smallest was 63,000 for a Friday night Championship fixture in 2022.

As it turned out, it was to be the lowest for any Six Nations fixture in the Welsh capital, smaller than the 58,349 for the game against Italy in 2002.

So what are the reasons for that?

Some might reference the game being on a Sunday, but that doesn’t stack up as that was also the case for this fixture in 2024 when 71,242 turned up.

Many will point to the ticket prices. For context, the cost of adult tickets for this match were £53, £88, £103 and £118.

Of course, it’s not just the price of tickets but all the associated costs in terms of food and drink, travel and potentially accommodation. It all adds up.

But then it’s been a pricey day out for years and the stadium has always been a lot fuller than this.

So what’s different at the minute?

Anger

Well, for one thing there’s the anger and animosity towards the WRU over the way they have gone about their plans to restructure the professional club game in Wales.

Some people, in particular Ospreys fans fearing for the future of their team, will have decided they don’t want to support or have anything to do with a WRU event.

But, above all, there’s the results. When you lose as many games as Wales have over the last couple of years, it inevitably takes a toll in terms of the number of people willing to cough up to watch them.

That’s particularly the case in terms of event goers, those folk who don’t watch too much rugby, but come for the occasion.

When you rely heavily upon fair weather fans, it obviously comes with a risk. For when the weather turns bad – metaphorically – and the occasion is not so appealing, they tend to stay away.

So what we have is a perfect storm – cost, fury towards the WRU and results.

The end product from all that is a record low crowd.

That attendance would have been considerably smaller again but for the number of travelling French fans.

Walking through town ahead of the match, it became apparent just how many supporters of Les Bleus had made the journey across the Channel.

Cardiff was awash with the red, white and blue of the Tricolore and the visiting hordes were making their presence felt.

The band playing outside the City Arms was a particular highlight of the day, while just about every pub seemed to have a Gallic flavour.

Then there was the scene and the sound inside the ground.

You had a sense there was a really sizeable French contingent amid the empty seats and that was confirmed by the anthems.

Never before have I heard La Marseillaise sung at such a volume. If anything, it was a match for the rendition of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau that followed.

It was a tremendous turnout from the French fans and they added so much to the day.

But then, when you’ve got a team to follow like they have, it’s little surprise they show up in such numbers.

At times, it was like watching a different sport altogether, such was the level the visitors played at.

I’ve seen some very special French teams over the decades, but this lot are right up there.

They are playing rugby from the Gods.

What really stood out was their ability to keep the ball alive, with their offloading game an absolute joy to watch.

When you add in their footwork, their speed and their rugby intelligence, it really is an intoxicating mix.

They had three tries in the bag inside 15 minutes and there wasn’t a missed Welsh tackle in there. There was nothing for the hosts to tackle as their guests just ran around them.

This French outfit finds space and exploits it like no other team.

Then when they want to, they can play the power game as well.

Ballet

As someone said after their victory over Ireland last weekend, it’s like being beaten up for 80 minutes by somebody who occasionally does a bit of ballet.

This week, it was the ballet that took centre stage as the backs did the real damage.

When you’ve got Antoine Dupont, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Matthieu Jalibert and Thomas Ramos up against you, it’s hard enough.

But then you add to that an exceptional young wing in 21-year-old Theo Attissogbe and a silky skilled debutant centre in Pau’s try-scoring Fabien Brau-Boirie.

They were simply just far too hot to handle.

The elusive and predatory Bielle-Biarrey maintained his remarkable strike rate by taking his try tally to 23 from 24 Tests, while fellow wing Attissogbe crossed twice.

The two of them ran riot out wide, while there were some trademark party pieces from Dupont, including one defence splitting pass out of the back door.

But it was Jalibert who really stole the show.

The Bordeaux-Begles fly-half has had to bide his time while others have worn the No 10 jersey.

But now he’s getting his chance and how he is taking it.

He is one of the most naturally gifted players in the game with his running ability and his creativity, while his decision making was of the highest order.

He has that golden gift of time on the ball and he just seems to see things that much quicker than most – and he has the talent to capitalise on the opportunities when he sees them.

There were the two tries he set up through pin point cross kicks, the one he created by claiming his over chip over the top. Then there was his midfield break and perfectly timed offload for another, not to mention his own touchdown as he popped up in support of Attissogbe off a turnover.

The man is a mercurial magician and very much worth the price of admission.

His brilliance at the helm of a scintillating back line helped the French take a 26-7 half-time, with Rhys Carre’s surge across the whitewash off a tap penalty a brief respite from the onslaught.

When the second period began, Les Bleus sent out a reminder that they can also turn to forward power when they wish, as hooker Julien Marchand marked his 50th cap by rounding off a mighty maul.

Attissogbe’s double followed, with lock Charles Ollivon extending his lead as France’s all-time top-scoring forward by rounding off a sweeping attack to complete the demolition job.

In the face of such all-round excellence, there wasn’t a whole lot Wales could do to stem the tide.

Self-inflicted wounds

For most of the first half, they at least avoided the self-inflicted wounds which plagued them against England.

That was until second row Adam Beard decided to kick ahead off a turnover only for the ball to hit Attissogbe who picked up the rebound and sent Jalibert scampering over.

Where Wales did play a part in their own downfall. however, was with their game-plan.

They adopted a kicking strategy for the first hour, repeatedly sending the ball skyward.

But the problem with a kick-to-reclaim policy is that if you don’t reclaim it, you are going to be in big trouble when you are up against a side who are as devastating on the transition as the French.

So it proved, with a couple of the visitors’ tries coming after Wales lost aerial contests.

It was noticeable that the hosts looked to keep the ball in hand a lot more when Jarrod Evans replaced Dan Edwards at fly-half and that change in attacking approach was rewarded late on when Mason Grady touched down after some fine footwork from Louis Rees-Zammit.

Hope

That score did provide some hope for the way forward for this Welsh team. With ball in hand, they do look like they can be threatening, especially when they take a leaf out of the French book in terms of support play, running lines and looking for space rather than collisions.

It’s what people want to see. They know this Welsh team is very limited and short on star quality. They just want to see them giving it a go with the ball, rather than giving the ball away.

It was a point acknowledged by skipper Dewi Lake when speaking after the game about what needs to happen to bring the crowds back.

“It’s our job to excite people and make them want to come and watch us,” said the hooker.

That’s the challenge. We wait to see whether it can be done, with the French having set the benchmark and provided the rugby lesson.