French tourists beat Wellington but lose probable test lock

Press, 2 July 1979, Page 30

French tourists beat Wellington but lose probable test lock

From

JOHN BROOKS

in Wellington

Two pet moves full of Gallic flair, speed, and muscle enabled France to score the tries to beat Wellington, 14-9, in the big rugby match at Athletic Park on Saturday. But the price of success was high, for in one of the manoeuvres a probable test lock, Jean-Francois Marchal, suffered an injury which effectively ended the tour for him.

In the move known as “Violet,” named after the Toulouse club’s emblem, Marchal presided over a tanped penalty, fed Guy Colornine, and the rest of the forwards packed on him in a flying wedge formation to thrust the burly prop across the goal-line. But Marchal arose wringing his right hand and in obvious agony. He played for tnree minutes but could not grip in the scrum and was forced to retire. The injury it was discovered later was a broken bone in the hand. But while there was a little despondency in the French camp at the loss of the lofty lock there was considerable satisfaction over the defeat of Wellington, which the Tricolours claimed was the strongest side they had met on the tour. The satisfaction came principally from the manner in which the French played their way back into calculations from a deficit of 0-9 after 44 minutes, the excellence of the defence, and the two well rehearsed moves which breached the resolute Wellington bastions. “Violet” was the first, and the second was “Bazet” named after the village birthplace of the admirable French full-back, Jean-Mi-chel Aguirre. For it was Aguirre, a towering figure in the game, who set up the move by taking an inside pass from the centre, Patrick Mesn e y , side-stepping through the defence on a diagonal path to the right, and then cross-kicking to his left for the team’s speedster, Frederic Costes, to win the race to the ball.

This try was scored only two minutes after the Wei-

lington full-back, Brian Cederwall. had hit the crossbar with his fourth unsuccessful penalty attempt of the match, and the young and athletic right wing, Serge Blanco, had leapt high like a soccer goal-keeper in an attempt to save. The counter-attack which ended in the Costes try gave France the lead and was the turning point of the match. Aguirre capped his splendid display with his huge penalty goal six minutes from the end, and even Wellington officials and players, keyed up for their centenary celebrations, unhesitatingly handed the day’s honours to the French. The home side’s forwards played wonderfully well, evoking memories of the Canterbury pack of two seasons ago, and • drubbed their rivals in the struggle for the ball. Wellington had an over-all possession advantage of two to one, and the count was almost three to

one in the second-phase encounters.

But Wellington's backs were not in the same class as the forwards, and a superbly organised and efficiently operated French defence reduced all the back attacks to tatters. Twice the All Black, Stuart Wilson, was placed in positions from which he would score nine times out of ten. On both occasions he was cut down as three defenders suddenly flitted across his path. The Wellington coach, Mr lan Upston, said his team should have employed the blind-side more because the backs could not outflank the swift Frenchmen on the open side. “We did not realise they were so quick,” he said. “I was surprised how good their defensive pattern and their tackling were. They are not going to he a walk-over in the test.”

Mr Upston, who coached Wellington to its national championship success last season, said he was “mighty proud” of his forwards. But he admitted that the backs did not make the best use of the ball.

“It was a good game of rugby — but I would have liked to have won it,” he said.

Both Mr Upston and the French manager, Mr Yves Noe, praised the performance of Aguirre. “Today you saw Aguirre the great,” Mr Noe said. “He is a player of quality and it was no accident that he performed so well. He never looked like dropping a ball — mind you we did not make him run for it,” Mr Upston said. Aguirre was certainly in commanding form, although

it was slightly below his outstanding play in the mud and rain against North Auckland, if only for the fact that he missed touch three or four times. But his catching of Wellington’s hopeful up-and-unders was so assured and so predictable that after about 20 minutes he grinned as he positioned himself under the ball.

Wellington, unable to penetrate in the midfield and gobbled up on the wings, became obsessed with hoisting the ball in the air, far too deeply as it proved, and with Tu Wyllie’s burrowing runs from first five-eights. The French captain, JeanPierre Rives, who had another fine game, summed up Wyllie early in the piece and was in position for the tackle every time the stocky Maori player zoomed off on his suicide missions. Mr Noe had a word for it — nefasse. It meant, he explained through the interpreter, that Wyllie played a game which caused the death of his side. Mr Noe also.observed that the French began too gently but he was pleased they had “kept their cool” when trailing by nine points and had not lost their grip on the game. “The only thing I don’t want to see is the All Blacks leading by nine points next Saturday because we won’t come back from there,” he said. The general manager was delighted with his team’s defensive qualities but admitted that there was an urgent need to remedy the possession famine before taking on the All Blacks. Wellington dominated the rucks through some excellent preparatory play by

Al Keown and Kevin Phelan, with Paul Quinn scorning a burst blood vessel in his left hand to give another powerpacked performance of allpurpose play.

Quinn was the central figure in a loose forward thrust from the back of a scrum which culminated in Keown scoring Wellington’s try.

In the line-outs the All Black, John Fleming, was outshone by his fellow lock, Brendon Gardner, who had one of his best games for his union. Fleming in fact looked nothing more than ordinary, and Gardner, Keown and Murray Mexted combined to put France out of the line-outs race. Mexted, at No. 8, was thoroughly competitive, tying up a good deal of potential French possession in broken play. But the Wellington backs were not able to compete with their markers on the same terms and the brilliant wings, Wilson and Bernie Fraser, were given little latitude. Blanco had a useful game on the right wing, underlining his versatility for France, and Mesny, a replacement for the injured Danile Bustaffa, looked a definite test prospect The anticipated southerly storm did not eventuate but rain fell steadily through the night and early morning. Yet the ground was in splendid order and the two teams produced a game which fittingly capped the centennial celebrations.

For France: tries by Costes and Colomine; two penalty goals by Aguirre. For Wellington: a try by Keown and a conversion and penalty goal by Cederwall.