{"id":898629,"date":"2026-09-20T07:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898629\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T07:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:04:16","slug":"wallaroos-vs-france-australia-suffers-dramatic-defeat-in-chaos-filled-match-featuring-red-cards-and-bus-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898629\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallaroos vs France: Australia suffers dramatic defeat in chaos-filled match featuring red cards and bus fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iain<\/p>\n

September 20, 2026 \u2014 12:57pm<\/p>\n

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The Australian women\u2019s rugby side have fallen to France in a dramatic last-gasp 29-26 defeat in Aix-en-Provence on a day so loaded with chaos that the game was even delayed after half-time due to a spectator bus exploding in flames behind the stadium.<\/p>\n

In a game where aptly named English referee Holly Wood handed out five yellow cards for foul play – and one red card to a French player for making contact with the eyes of a Wallaroos player – the home side found themselves reduced to 11 players at one point in the first half.<\/p>\n

\"Australia\u2019sAustralia\u2019s Siokapesi Palu Sekona on the attack during the WXV Global Series clash with France in Aix-en-Provence.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Along with the permanent red card to Cloe Correa for eye contact, France had three more players binned for dangerous tackles between the 16th and 23rd minutes. One of those was upgraded to a 20-minute red card.<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos had already dominated physically early and scored, but they duly took advantage of the four-person advantage by scoring another two tries and raced out to a 19-0 lead after 30 minutes. But the French side, having returned to 13 players, rallied and somehow scored twice before halftime.<\/p>\n

The home crowd went from loud booing and whistling at the decisions of referee Holly Wood to joyous cheers as France somehow stayed in the contest before the break.<\/p>\n

If there hadn\u2019t been enough drama already, the game\u2019s resumption after half-time was delayed by seven minutes after a shuttle bus caught fire directly behind one of two main stands at the Stade Maurice David.<\/p>\n

\"AA cloud of black smoke billows out of a burning shuttle bus and drifts across the field during the WXV Global Series match between France and Australia.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Thick black smoke was seen billowing above the stadium. One Australian supporter who attended the game emailed this masthead and said when the tyres of the bus blew up \u201cthe explosions shook the whole stadium!\u201d<\/p>\n

When play finally resumed, the intensity picked up where it left off, and Australia scored again in the 50th minute through Piper Duck to hold a 14-point lead.<\/p>\n

But the world No.4 France side again rallied behind a boisterous crowd. Having returned to 14 players, the hosts scored the last two tries and crashed over in the 75th minute to secure a staggering win against the Wallaroos.<\/p>\n

It was a painful defeat for the Wallaroos, who couldn\u2019t make the most of their varying numerical advantages and calmly manage their way home in the last half-hour of a crazy game.<\/p>\n

Coming after a spirited performance against world No.1 England last week, the performance again showed the Wallaroos are trending upwards, but they\u2019ll be kicking themselves for not taking the gift-wrapped opportunity to bury France.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put ourselves in a position to take out a win and we didn\u2019t execute. But the positive is that we put ourselves in the position to win, but we\u2019re disappointed and particularly on half-time, you know, when the French scored with 13 players,\u201d Wallaroos interim coach Tim Walsh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, that\u2019s unacceptable. And that\u2019s probably where the game might have been at its momentum shifting. And then, obviously, half-time, I don\u2019t know whether you guys planned to bomb the bus, but it certainly had everything.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Zane<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe game had everything, didn\u2019t it? It had a fantastic crowd, two fantastic teams, some running rugby, some discipline, some fireworks, and then some fire. So, yeah, it was an entertaining game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh said the Wallaroos, who now move on to a match against Scotland next weekend, had ample talent, but the ability of the side to \u201cmanage games\u201d was not good enough due to their lack of experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you compare how many matches a year the Wallaroos play to the French [players], it\u2019s probably half, not from a Test match, just normal rugby,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our ability to manage games, to upskill, to be fit, is where we\u2019re lacking. We\u2019re not lacking the talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"IainIain Payten<\/a> is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 20, 2026 \u2014 12:57pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-898629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}