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France made to work for win

The five-tries-to-two victory sets up Les Bleus for a pool decider when they meet the men from the Emerald Isle in 10 days' time.

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The Irish, unbeaten in their two games so far, play Italy on Sunday.

Frederic Michalak also became France's all-time World Cup points scorer, as his country became the first team to reach the quarterfinals.

The 33-year-old flyhalf, already France's all-time leading scorer, scored 14 points to pass Thierry Lacroix' previous mark of 124.

He moved on to 136 points.France made to work for win

The mercurial playmaker broke the record in front of a record crowd for Stadium mk of 28,145 including Prince Harry.

France were far from convincing. In fact at times it was downright awful play from the French.

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However, they did enough to outplay a willing Canadian team that lacked real class in some key positions.

A typical piece of visionary brilliance by Michalak opened up the Canadian defence in the third minute – handing off one of the props dismissively and bursting free.

He drew his defender and with a sublime sleight of hand passed the ball to Wesley Fofana who needed no second invitation to run the ball in.

Michalak converted to draw level with Thierry Lacroix as France's all-time leading World Cup scorer on 124.  

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The 33-year-old broke the record in the 15th minute slotting over a penalty to make it 10-0.

The Canadians' match worsened as captain Tyler Ardron had to go off with a knee injury.

Michalak and Fofana nearly combined for a second try in the 24th minute started by a great break by Michalak, then he placed a cheeky cross field kick into Fofana's path over the tryline but the centre wasn't quite able to gather the ball and touch it down.

However, the French did not have to wait long to add to their try tally. Hooker Guilhem Guirado bundled over with Michalak adding the extras for 17-0.

The Canadians struck back almost immediately as debutant Remy Grosso was beaten in the air and the ball was eventually worked brilliantly out to the other wing where DTH van der Merwe used his speed to outpace the defence and touch down.

It took van der Merwe onto 19 Test tries and was his third in three games at this World Cup.

Nathan Hirayama converted to rousing cheers, including several spectators dressed as Canadian Mounties, for 17-7.

The Mounties were whooping and hollering minutes later as unbelievably the Canadians scored their second try. Hooker Aaron Carpenter planted the ball on the line – though Hirayama missed the conversion – to close the gap to 12-17.  

The French pulled themselves together and responded with a try two minutes from the break, the ball worked by Bernard Le Roux to lock Pascal Pape for prop Rabah Slimani to finish it off – Michalak converted for 24-12.

Hirayama reduced the deficit two minutes into the second-half to make it 24-15.

The flyhalf deservedly drew the Canadians within a converted try of the French, slotting over another penalty as the clock ticked over into the 55th minute.

Michalak made it 27-18 with another penalty.

The French grabbed their bonus point fourth try when Pape squeezed the ball through a mass of bodies and Michalak converted for 34-18 with 13 minutes remaining.

The Canadians were less than thrilled as their legs tired to see replacement Nanyak Dala sin-binned as the game entered its final 10 minutes.

The man advantage worked for Grosso who went in, in the far left hand corner to mark his debut with a try, lifting his hands to his eyes as a pair of binoculars searching for someone in the crowd.

Man of the match: You can always count on wing DTH van der Merwe to cause havoc in the opposing defences. Jamie Cudmore and Aaron Carpenter were among the other Canucks who earned respect for the performances. Scott Spedding attacked with purpose, Wesley Fofana was creative, Thierry Dusautoir the workhorse and Pascal Pape the muscle. Our award goes to French flyhalf Frederic Michalak, who put on display his full array of skills – the magic that makes the French so special.

Moment of the match: There was some great tries, including a classic from Canadian wing DTH van der Merwe. However, the opening French try – by Wesley Fofana in the third minute – had all the French flair you could wish for. The French attacked from deep, Frederic Michalak broke the line and offloaded to Fofana, who scored.

Villain of the match: Nothing villainous.

The scorers:

For France:

Tries: Fofana, Guirado, Slimani, Pape, Grosso

Cons: Michalak 4, Parra    

Pens: Michalak 2

For Canada:

Tries: Van der Merwe, Carpenter

Con: Hirayama

Pens: Hirayama 2

Yellow card: Nanyak Dala (Canada, 72 – professional foul, killing the ball)

Teams:

Canada: 15 Matt Evans, 14 Phil Mackenzie, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Nick Blevins, 11 DTH Van Der Merwe, 10 Nathan Hirayama, 9 Phil Mack, 8 Tyler Ardron (captain), 7 Richard Thorpe, 6 Kyle Gilmour, 5 Jamie Cudmore, 4 Brett Beukeboom, 3 Doug Wooldridge, 2 Aaron Carpenter, 1 Hubert Buydens.

Replacements: 16 Ray Barkwill, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Andrew Tiedemann, 19 Evan Olmstead, 20 Nanyak Dala, 21 Gordon McRorie, 22 Harry Jones, 23 Conor Trainor.

France: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Brice Dulin, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Remy Grosso, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Sebastian Tillous-Borde, 8 Damien Chouly, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Eddy Ben Arous.

Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Nicolas Mas, 19 Yannick Nyanga, 20 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 21 Morgan Parra, 22 Remi Tales, 23 Alexandre Dumoulin.

Referee: JP Doyle (England)

Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Angus Gardner (Australia)

TMO: Graham Hughes (England)

AFP & @rugby365com

France made to work for win

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