DEPOORTERE SCORES TWICE AS FRANCE EARN HARD-FOUGHT WIN OVER FIJI
It was not a stylish win for France. France have been far from that since winning the Six Nations this year, but it was an entertaining, hard-fought win against a Fiji side who pressured and disrupted them as the rain crashed down on the Stade Atlantique in Bordeaux.
It started stylishly, at least. The French raced out to a 21-0 lead with three tries in the opening 20 minutes. The first was the sweetest of France’s scores as Nicolas Depoortere carved his way to the line. His centre partner Pierre-Louis Barassi burst through a gaping hole in Fiji’s backline and a sharp pass inside to Depoortere saw him score his first international try.
Things quickly worsened for the visitors when Selestino Ravutaumada was sent to the sin-bin, and Julien Marchand scored France’s second off the back of that as Fiji were powerless to stop a fierce maul towards their line.
Charles Ollivon, who was immense all night, scored the third as he crashed through two Fijians to cap an incisive counter-attack. The game looked to be over. The French were flying. Thomas Ramos was metronomic from the tee.
But it was almost as if the French thought the same, that the win they had craved for months was finally theirs, and they let their foot off the gas. Kalaveti Ravouvou made them pay, and the centre burst through some suddenly tiring French defenders for Fiji’s first try.
Ravutaumada, making up for his sin-binning, scored their second right on the edge of the first-half, skipping from outside to in and bamboozling a trio of Frenchmen.
They struck first in the second-half too and those weak French shoulders had not gotten any stronger. The rampaging Jiuta Wainiqolo scored an improbable finish, stepping inside and carrying two French defenders with him over the line instead of racing for the corner.
The game was level and although Ramos slotted a penalty in the 50th minute to retake the lead, the hosts were looking sluggish and tired. Fiji, who had seen the second half against England slip away from them, were chomping at the bit.
And so France resorted to pragmatism. Ramos was calm and clever and kicked his goals until the opportunity presented for him to burst life back into his side.
He did so once again with Depoortere, and the full-back’s neat inside ball to the oncoming centre saw him barrel towards the line and confirm a hard-fought win.
France now turn their attention to a meeting with the Wallabies after the Australia were overpowered 46-19 by Ireland in Dublin.