Lescarboura French star

Press, 4 June 1984, Page 13

Lescarboura French star

NZPA staff correspondent New Plymouth The French fly-half, JeanPatrick Lescarboura, marked himself a danger man for the All Blacks when he starred in the tourists’ scrambling 30-18 victory over Taranaki on Saturday. The strapping first fiveeighths had all the boot power his reputation asserted and he showed he had more pace than his solid frame should allow by scoring the best of the Frenchmen’s four tries. Lescarboura’s control of the French back-line was not outstanding but he linked capably with his talented outsides. He complemented his try with three penalties, one conversion and a fine longdistance dropped goal which came as no more than a reflex action from broken play. The fact that France had been in New Zealand for only 72 hours before this match and were still jetlagged was obvious when they slowed almost to a walk in the second half. However, Lescarboura was effective by keeping his team going forward with tactical kicking which,

while not always welldirected, ate up huge amounts of ground. The team’s fatigue partly excused their humdrum, sometimes shambolic performance. Their four tries came from moments of inspiration among their backs but often the French back division could not click. Passes went astray, ball carriers ran out of support and many left hands did not know what their right was up to. Taranaki’s young scrum held up well against their stronger, heavier opponents and France’s possession came mainly from line-outs which they won 13-10 and domination in the rucks and mauls. It was in those areas, however, that', they gave up penalties which curbed the flow of the match and allowed Kieran Crowley to keep Taranaki firmly in contention. The French presented Crowley with nine kickable penalties of which he turned six into Taranaki’s only points. Their tendency to push or obstruct their opponents in the line-out was not penalised as often as it might have been and their knack for getting offside at rucks and mauls was costly.

However, the French captain, Philippe Dintrans, said that he was not concerned by his team’s 18-6 penalty deficit because Taranaki did not turn it into tries. Their infringements wasted the line-out superiority of Jean Luc Joinel and Francis Haget,

however, and the hard work of Haget, Pierre-Edouward Detrez and Laurent Rodriguez in the loose. The referee, Graeme Harrison, was lenient on the tourists but they were warned by the Taranaki coach, Bill Batchelor, and the captain, Warren Bunn, after the match that they

might not get off so lightly in later matches. Scorers: France 30 (Philippe Sella (2), Jean-Patrick Lescarboura, Marc Andrieu tries; Lescarboura three penalties, conversion, drop goal); Taranaki 18 (Kieran Crowley six penalties).