Lievremont not getting carried away
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:52
France scored seven tries to overwhelm Samoa 43-5 in a one-off Test on Saturday and raise expectations ahead of their match next week against New Zealand.
Francois Trinh-Duc scored two tries, Dimitri Szarzewski, Vincent Clerc, Yannick Jauzion, Thierry Dusautoir and Benjamin Fall all touched down. Scrumhalf Morgan Parra added eight points through conversions.
Substitute Jo Tekori scored Samoa's lone try.
France, which beat the world champion South Africa 20-13 in their previous game, will face New Zealand next week in Marseille in their last November Test.
Despite his players' convincing win against a side that narrowly lost 13-17 to Wales last week, Lievremont downplayed the importance of the result.
"We don't want to get too carried away," Lievremont said.
"It's reassuring and it's comfortable. But we only will be a great team when we will have the status of favourites [against the All Blacks] and that we will be able to defend it on the field. I hope we won't have to wait too long for this."
Prop Sylvain Marconnet, who captained the team for the first time, was happy that France was able to build on the momentum of its win against the Springboks.
"It's a good result because after a big match we usually have the tendency to relax," Marconnet said. "But we worked very hard the whole week and now we want to achieve a Grand Slam in this autumn tour. I'm very proud of the lads."
Facing a weak Samoan defence, France scored on almost every attacking move in the first half despite coach Marc Lievremont fielding an understrength team at the Stade de France.
The French, who secured their second win in as many games against the Samoans, scored in the third minute when hooker Szarzewski picked up the ball five meters from the line and touched down after weaving through the defence.
France extended its lead four minutes later when fullback Maxime Medard set up Clerc to run in under the posts for his 22nd try.
The Samoans were under heavy pressure and conceded a third try in the 13th minute after Trinh-Duc cleverly chipped the ball over the defence for Jauzion to touch down.
Samoa's Lolo Lui and Fa'atonu Fili missed three penalty kicks combined in the first 25 minutes.
Dusautoir scored a try in the 28th after the intervention of the third official following good lead-up work by the French pack and lock Sebastien Chabal in particular.
Fall celebrated his debut with a try in the 36th minute when he latched onto Julien Bonnaire's kick.
"We had some concentration lapses in the second half," Fall said.
"We'll have to think about this against the All Blacks otherwise we will be punished."
Samoa began to get back into the match after the interval with some heavy tackles, yet they were unable to threaten the French defence.
France stretched their lead further in the 60th when Parra off-loaded to Trinh-Duc, who avoided a tackle and dived to touch down. Parra missed the conversion and was replaced by Julien Dupuy.
Trinh-Duc scored his second try seven minutes later after Fall retrieved the ball following a bad clearance.
The Samoans scored a consolation try through Tekori in the 71st minute following a nice move by the forwards.
SAPA-AP