France won, not without suffering, its fourth match of the Six Nations Tournament on Saturday April 19 in Parma against Italy (34-21), opening the way to a final against England next weekend.
As hoped at the start of the competition, the Blues will have their destiny in hand before challenging the English mountain at Twickenham on the last day, after having confirmed their domination over all the other European teams, with four victories, including three with the offensive bonus.
Since 2020, they have never lost in the Six Nations Tournament against opponents other than the English (20 wins, one draw). But they have never beaten the English in this interval.
A difficult but decisive start
The first of its two series almost came to an end in Parma on Saturday, where the Blues fell behind for the first time in the competition, a gap which rose to nine points at half-time (21-12). And they only had a one point lead until three minutes from time.
After a good start to the match, rewarded by a try from Joanna Grisez on an effective combination, the French showed themselves to be far too undisciplined, with ten penalties suffered during the first period (14 in total) including a yellow card for Madoussou Fall-Raclot for a high tackle.
But as against Scotland and Wales, the second period was more in favor of the Blues, in particular because they gave the ball up less often to take advantage of the physical superiority of the French forwards.
The players returning to the squad, such as center Gabrielle Vernier after her exclusion against Ireland or Romane Ménager, after an injury, were valuable. Ménager scoring the try under the poles, allowing the Blues to get back in front a little before the hour mark (22-21, 55th).
The Blues only gave themselves some air very late, struggling to gain the upper hand over the Italian defense, notably with slow ball exits in the groupings and due to a much less inspired Morgane Bourgeois against the poles (four misses out of eight). But they never suffered too much against the Italians, who struggled to get the ball back and were punished much more than in the first period.
Marine Ménager then Alexandra Chambon scored two tries at the end of the match to give a flattering dimension to the scoreboard.
In the running for the final victory, the Blues will cross the Channel far from being favorites, as the English have demonstrated much more of their superiority in the first matches of the Tournament.
With AFP
