French lament 'ridiculous' defeat
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:09
Looking fro answers: French coach Marc Lievremont
Argentina achieved their best-ever win over France in Buenos Aires on Saturday, outplaying the Six Nations Grand Slam champions 41-13 - a defeat described by French coach Marc Lievremont as "ridiculous".
The Pumas scored four tries to one, with flyhalf Felipe Contepomi scoring two of those and adding three conversions and five penalties for a personal haul of 31 points.
It was a welcome return to winning ways for the South Americans, who lost both Test matches to Scotland at home earlier this month.
For France it brought the curtain down on a miserable mini mid-year tour, having been trounced 42-17 by world champions South Africa in Cape Town.
The previous worse result for the French against Argentina came in the third-place play-off at the 2007 World Cup when they lost 10-34.
"It's desolation," said stunned France coach Marc Lievremont.
"I don't know how we could sink so badly in these few weeks, to suffer two points records in South Africa and now here in Argentina.
"I expected tough matches, but these defeats are ridiculous. It was a nightmare."
France skipper Thierry Dusautoir was equally despondent.
"When you concede 40 points in two successive Tests, there isn't a lot to say," he said.
"We can find 50 excuses, but today we came up against a team who were just much stronger than us. We were dominated in all areas and this was our level sadly today.
"For a team that has ambitions to be world champions next year, it's going to be difficult to pick ourselves up from this."
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