French force league draw against Britain

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 25

French force league draw against Britain

NZPA-AFP Avignon, Southern France France took advantage of a weary second-half performance by Great Britain to force a 10-10 draw in their Rugby League Test, counting for the World Cup, at Avignon on Sunday. The full-back, Gilles Dumas, a real fireball, whose shoulder-length blond hair and dashing style was strikingly reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Rives, a national rugby hero, scored all their points on his debut. The British, 10-2 ahead at half-time, dozed off in the sun after the interval and Dumas, aged 22, turned their nap into a nightmare. He kicked France ahead with a penalty in the second minute but Lee Crooks replied in the fifteenth minute and put Britain ahead with his second kick in the thirtyfourth minute. Ellery Hanley went

over for a try in the thirty-ninth minute which Crooks converted. An inside pass from Potter left Wane acres of space on the left and Hanley, bursting through, took the ball with one hand and put it under the posts.

The British, who seemed to dwarf their smaller opponents, tried to take the game by storm at the start of the second half but when that came to nought they seemed quite happy to sit on their lead. The livewlre French had other ideas, scoring a tremendous try in the forty-sixth minute. Dumas started the move 10 metres Inside his own half when he intercepted a terrible Tony Myler pass one-handed. He sidestepped Henderson Gill and chipped ahead for the left wing, Pascal Laroche, to gather and beat Schofield and Hanley before giving the blond bomber a

free run to the line. Dumas converted and pulled the score level with a sixth-fourth penalty. He had an opportunity to clinch victory in the last minute but pulled a penalty wide. Scorers.—

France — Try: Gilles Dumas (forty seventh minute). Conversion: Dumas (forty seventh). Penalties: Dumas (second and sixty second). Britain — Try: Ellery Hanley (thirty ninth). Conversion: Lee Crooks (thirty ninth). Penalties: Crooks (fifteen and thirty fifth). Attendance: 6000.

Teams: France — Dumas: Couston, Maury, Fourquet, Laroche (sub.Berge seventh fifth minute): Espugna, Entat: Bernabe, Laforgue (captain), Palanque, Titeux (Rabot thirty sixth), Baco, Chantal (temporary expulsion fortieth). . 1 5

Britain — Burke: Drummond, Schofield, Hanley, Gill: Myler (temporary expulsion forty fourth). Fox: Pinner (captain), Fieldhouse, Potter, Wane, Watklnson, Crooks (temporary expulsion sixty second).