19 points: Fred Michalak
France completed a clean sweep of their November Tests at the Stade de France on Saturday with a 22-14 win over Samoa.
Unlike their convincing successes over Australia and Argentina this month, victory didn't come easily for the French, who were trailing the Islanders going into the final quarter.
The result means France will end the month as Europe's highest-ranked side and will be one of the four top seeds at the 2015 World Cup Draw on December 3.
France led 10-7 at half time thanks to a charge-down try from Fred Michalak, whose score cancelled out David Lemi's opening try for Samoa.
Samoa moved in front early in the second period however when Joe Tekori scored as France struggled to contain the visitors' power game.
But Four Michalak penalties in the final 25 minutes were enough to see les Bleus home to a hard-fought win.
Samoa were first strike approaching the end of the first quarter. From turnover ball, prop Census Johnston chipped ahead (!) for wing Robert Lilomaiava to collect. Lemi was up in support to score the game's first try in spectacular fashion.
The French reply wasn't long in coming however as Michalak charged down his opposite number, Tusi Pisi, to bolt clear and score under the posts.
The home fly-half's conversion levelled the scores but France were having a hard time matching their visitors both in terms of physicality and accuracy on attack.
Scrum-half Morgan Parra was however able to give the French a half-time lead thanks to a 45 metre penalty shortly before the break.
Samoa started the second half breathing fire and a break from scrum-half Kahn Fotuali'i had them camped on the French 22. Tekori took his chance on the fringe of a ruck, stretching out an arm to place the ball on the whitewash. It was a close call, but the TMO confirmed the try.
Pisi's conversion gave Samoa a 14-10 lead but Michalak soon pulled three back when the visitors infringed on the deck.
France turned to their scrum to earn the next penalty and a narrow lead and the hosts were lucky to see Pisi miss a second shot a goal.
Unable to unlock the Samoan defence with their backs, the French forwards put in the hard yards, earning another long range penalty for Michalak to secure victory in the dying minutes.
Man of the match: We usually pick someone from the winning side but a few Samoans really impressed. Kahn Fotuali'i was excellent and Census Johnston was awesome in both the scrums and the tight-loose. But we'll go for Taiasina Tuifua who made huge yards with ball in hand.
Moment of the match: Samoa's first try was a wake up call for France. Census Johnston's chip ahead to create the try will was straight out of front-row fantasy land!
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff to report
The scorers:
For France:
Try: Michalak
Con: Michalak
Pens: Parra, Michalak 4
For Samoa:
Tries: Lemi, Tekori
Cons: Pisi 2
France: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Wesley Fofana, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Vincent Clerc, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé (c), 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Yannick Forestier, 18 Vincent Debaty, 19 Jocelino Suta, 20 Damien Chouly, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Yoann Huget.
Samoa: 15 David Lemi (c), 14 Paul Perez, 13 George Pisi, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Robert Lilomaiava, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Taiasina Tuifua, 7 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 6 Ofisa Treviranus, 5 Joe Tekori, 4 Filo Paulo, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Ti'i Paulo, 1 Sakaria Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Ole Avei, 17 Villiamu Afatia, 18 James Johnston, 19 Faatiga Lemalu, 20 Tivaini Fomai, 21 Jeremy Su'a, 22 Ki Anufe, 23 Reupena Levasa.
Venue: Stade de France, Paris
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Comments
swells07 says...
@chancer you must be joking mate. the scots lost because the Tongans had bigger hearts and wanted it more. besides the one hit from the tongan prop (which was legal, the poor scot only bounced off of him because the hit was so monstrous), the physicality the Tongans displayed at the breakdown and throughout the match was simply way too much for the scots to handle, end of story. That's how the Pacific Islander's play...They love the physical aspect of the game and they show plenty of heart and passion for the strip that they wear. They'll throw their bodies on the line at any moment. And poor AR, he resigned because the 15 that were on the field with the Scotland jerseys all let him down quite frankly.
@sonsofsamoa maaaaaaaaaaaaaan, did samoa look amazing. too bad they were shorted like that from an inconsistent ref. It's good to see the world take notice to our small island nations. We can play some damn good rugby and that's a fact. I too cannot wait for RWC 2015 brother! Ofa 'atu!
Posted 04:24 27th November 2012
chancer says...
Some strange comments on this thread, Why do officials allow different standards for PI teams, offside half the game, tackeling without arms, don't even mention the breakdown. Much the same in the Scotland game, perhaps Andy resigned in protest at the very poor standard of reffing.
Posted 09:47 26th November 2012
jontheref says...
melkdave
in case you missed it on the Wales/NZ thread, you were supposedly watching two games at the same time!
What a hero you are!
No wonder you get so much wrong!
One of maggies children are you?
milk stealer?
Posted 18:32 25th November 2012
Iyhel says...
No villain? The ref was simply awful - for both sides. Overall he made the right calls but often for the wrong reason and always late!
The worst being the penalty against Samoa when they were 5 m from the French line after their 2nd try. It alone may not have cost them the match but it killed their momentum.
If Samoa want to win these games they have to find a reliable goalkicker and stop butchering lineouts. And they lost their advantage at the scrum when Census Johnston got off the field.
It certainly wasn't as entertaining as last week games but there were some nice moves and plenty to build on for both sides.
Posted 13:15 25th November 2012
mlbp says...
It is clear that France will have learnt a lot from this match. They have found some grit (as some other poster mentioned) and now they can fight their way back without making silly mistakes or giving away stupid penalties. I saw some of the players struggling, though. Some were running away from contact with the Samoans in some situations (Picamoles was unusually quiet, Mas made some tackling blunders, Maestri was missing at times), as if they felt dominated by the sheer brutality of the Samoan energy in the rucks and tackles. Nyanga, Ouedraogo, Fritz, Mermoz defended really well against bigger and faster opponents but they could not play offensively. They were under pressure all the match. How many times did France make a clean line break? The subs helped France and I still wonder why coaches have to substitute players at a certain time. Census Johnston was having a blinder, the moment he goes off France is better in the scrums and in the tight the Samoans' domination is not so evident.
Kahn Fotuali'i is outstanding. He's fast, his pass is laser-accurate, he tackles and supports play like no other. Against him Parra was slow and without ideas. Machenaud is more dynamic and when he came on France defended better and moved the ball fast away from the Samoan tackles. He showed great character.
Tuifua, Treviranus and Tekori deserve all the praise. They had the French on the back foot all match. How many metres did they gain every time they had the ball? How many tackles did they make?
Michalak now keeps his cool and his defence was excellent. He always had the talent but it looks as if coaches in France never knew how to exploit it. However, Michalak knew how to learn how to exploit it: going down south.
France are still a team in the making. It's just the beginning of PSA's tenure and some players are missing. I expect great fun at the 6 Nations!
Posted 11:47 25th November 2012
mlbp says...
France, as against Australia and Argentina, started the game against Samoa slowly, but in those matches the opposition tired quickly or France was able to dominate after some superb play. This time France were bullied by the physicality of the Samoans, who were relentless in defence, hard as nails in the tackle and the breakdown and always going forward because of the great work by Kahn Fotuali'i, definitely one of the best 9's in the world right now. France suffered greatly because of their lightweight pack (you cannot give away 100kg in the scrum nowadays, Hari and Titi were missed) and they surrendered possession all the time. It seemed as if the French were afraid of contact halfway through the match. They kicked away possession instead of keeping the ball tight or using their backs and forwards together as they did in their previous two matches. Parra always plays in the same way, lots of kicks from the base of rucks or scrums and the Samoans know how to counterattack superbly, so France were always on the back foot. France had some outstanding rolling mauls and they could have used that technique more often to keep the Samoan defence guessing and then release their backs (again Freddy was fantastic leading the team, and his defence was excellent too), but they kicked and kicked. When you have a dearth of possession you cannot kick so much. France had the players to keep the ball in their rolling mauls and then ruck quickly and use Nyanga and Ouedraogo to support the backs.
Samoa are outstanding in terms of physicality, aggression and skills, and now they have learnt how to be an organized team in their set pieces. Their scrum was really good. Their problem seems to be their depth. France's subs were better and turned the game round. They can beat any team on a given day and they should have won yesterday had it not been for Michalak's charge down try.
Posted 11:28 25th November 2012
choky says...
i am french but i think that samoas were the better team and should have won - fully agree with comments frm toulousain and really can understand how bad the samoans must feel- we been cheated by british referees for decades and this time this was the opposite so can understand u guys how u feel
this said i would think that given last results of australia and argentina france is not as good as their 2 first vioctories would have made us think - argentina only beat wales that everybody seems to be beating at the moment (which rather strange gven how good they were not so long ago) and were destroyed by ireland and australia performances were really not that good- so all in all the true french value is probably mor reflected in the difficult game agnst samoa than the 2 large victories anst australia and argentina
Posted 09:54 25th November 2012
miladiou says...
@Toulousain wow I knew NZ treated us badly but not that badly. Just shows what a disgusting nation NZ is when it comes to Rugby especially last world cup.
I remember our team in 2009 getting bottles thrown at them by the crowd for daring to beat the All Blacks.
The funny thing is the All Blacks used to be soooooo respected and loved in France. The French media would give them godlike status etc... The All blacks were always the French fan's second team. Not any more. I have to say they are the one team I really hate. Not because they are the best but because they have no respect for other teams and their whole country is too fanatical about rugby.
What will happen if France, however, unlikely it is, wins the test series next summer? Riots, team coach attacked, Ref hounded out of NZ? Pathetic
Posted 09:49 25th November 2012
lacroix says...
i also think its a good reality check for france and expectations around this team. australia were poor on the day, argentina patchy and getting tired (and look at what ireland did to them)...up against a really committed and extremely talented samoa france found it much much harder.
i think there were some positives for france- fitness levels looked good and in the last 20 they looked the better, stronger team. scrum was good and tactical kicking far better. i'm pleased to see france put together 3 wins and to see freddie put in 3 very creditable performances on the trot...i'd have settled for that 3 weeks ago. but theres a long long way to go...and at the risk of repeating myself , why, oh why are we playing one of the best centres in europe on the wing?
as to samoa- you already had my utmost respect; more so now and its a disgrace that they are not playing in a top tier annual tournament. if the southern hemisphere 'giants' (small minded giants) won't have them lets have them playing in a 7 nations tournament ...OK..i know that will never happen, but i'd love to see them beating wales, england and ireland every year :)
Posted 09:11 25th November 2012
lacroix says...
i think its clear that france were very lucky, samoa certainly could easily have won. the ref was poor and that hurt samoa more than france
Posted 08:49 25th November 2012
Saint_Andre91 says...
@Toulousain 'We have also suffered from decades of being considered a hot-headed Latin tier 2 nation in the eyes of anglo-saxon referees.'
Different context. Refereeing was not the same in France and England by that time. Players rarely crossed the Channel, and referees almost never. Nowadays, clubs compete against each others at Euro / SANZAR level, not even half the players in Top14 are French, there's global harmonization of refereeing, a dozen of test matches per year for International players... There's no more surprise.
Maybe a solitary Samoan or two from yesterday's team still play in Samoa, but all the others play in Super Rugby / HCup, so they are used to the same standards of refereeing as their French counterparts. Which makes biaised refereeing even harder to swallow (e.g. RWC2011 final...)
Posted 08:31 25th November 2012
froggy73 says...
@cuw3100 - yeah same for Carter I guess. See what a season in the Top 14 can do to a player :) Next Francois Stern ?
Posted 08:14 25th November 2012
vaizpatu2011 says...
What amazed me about this French team is...although they were under a lot of pressure in some 60% of the time...they never panic. Amazing Mental preparations right there. Also credits to the Samoans....they are surely the next best thing in rugby. Very disappointed with the Argentines....lost my $100 in a bet.
Posted 08:10 25th November 2012
cuw3100 says...
See what a season in the Super 15 can do to a player :) Next Cipriani?
Posted 04:15 25th November 2012
vaizpatu2011 says...
@jmanngod...sorry if no-one here is willing to reply to your childish comments not only on this story page here. Sorry but the Samoan team is one solid "BROWN" coconut ass team. Whatever angle we may look from into this claim that you hold in your small (tiny) mind, each of these boys were either born off a Samoan sperm or off a Samoan stomach. They just went over to NZ for a better future. So Im sorry but they are not off your small island country New Zealands sperm. In the States, you maybe have been born there, raised there and represent the US in any form of activity...you still have that ethnic tag of where you got off from. So, unless they were born off a non-Samoa sperm or stomach, please give them the honor for representing their country. Now go play with your toys.
Posted 03:34 25th November 2012
J_HDK says...
When Samoa learns how to play the referee, they may start winning these games. - yet they keep on doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result... madness.
Posted 02:16 25th November 2012
yuri29 says...
Do PR hate Michalak??
How the hell couldn't he be the MOTM in at least one of the last France wins??
Posted 01:11 25th November 2012
sonsofsamoa says...
I forgot to add before that Kahn Fotuali'i is arguably the best scrumhalf on the planet (bar an in form Genia) .. Anyone who agrees or disagree? But on an entirely different note!! International Rugby is looking VERY impressive now.. with the top 12 looking VERY competitive.. With rankings 2-12 being able to beat their opposition on any given day!.. What is everyone's thoughts?? I honestly can not wait until the RWC 2015!!!..
Posted 01:09 25th November 2012
sonsofsamoa says...
@Rosbif
Definitely agree with you .. Samoa ALWAYS need to go above and beyond to beat a Tier one nation, to the point that it has to be blatantly obvious for Samoa to gain any sort of advantage.. And most of the 50 50 calls always go to the Tier one nation side.. Just like last nights game.. But honestly there is no use in crying over spilt milk, Samoa have lost.. And although I have moved on.. Samoa have proved their point in defeat, as I would have expected in victory (looking at all the French comments) I'm just glad that everyone has realized and witnessed that Samoa is DEFINITELY a consistent side against the Tier one nations.. (That was the point of this Northern Hemisphere tour, not to cause upsets, but to prove consistency and continue to gel as a team).. Scarey thought is this Samoan team is still coming together!!.. So look out world here we come!!!
Posted 00:50 25th November 2012
sonsofsamoa says...
Even though we were edged out by an opportunist try in Michalak's charged down kick and chase .. And the referee giving such a one sided display.. Samoa STILL lost guys.. so no matter what we do or say is going to actually matter.. France have won.. But I am proud of our boys because they've proved what they're capable of (World Beaters).. even though missing a fraction of their starting players in the line-up .. They were still capable of beating France who were the best team by far in the Northern Hemisphere as shown from France's rampage after giving Australia and Argentina a hiding.. I know that I will get a lot of stick for this but If Samoa had regular competition every year they would beat Australia and South Africa.. (not the AB's as they're on a class of they're own) Well done to the boys from the heart of the Pacific!! Malo le ta'alo, malo lava le tapuai!!.. Fa'avae Le Atua Samoa!!
Posted 00:34 25th November 2012