France eased to a 37-23 victory over an ill-disciplined Argentina at a bitterly cold Paris in their final game of the November internationals on Friday.
Les Bleus claimed four tries including a superb solo effort from in-form winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, following on from victories over Japan and New Zealand.
“Three from three during the series makes us happy, it was the objective,” Bielle-Biarrey told TF1.
“Japan was a little warm-up, then against the All Blacks we fought until the end. We end with three wins and I feel we improved game on game.”
Los Pumas had two players shown yellow cards in the first half, captain Julian Montoya and Juan Martin Gonzalez, which led to the hosts leading 30-9 at the break.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted, our discipline wasn’t good,” Montoya told TNT Sport.
“What made me proud was we went again until the 80th minute, there’s things to improve.”
France coach Fabien Galthie made four changes from last Saturday’s nerve-wracking one-point win over New Zealand as Charles Ollivon came in for the dropped Gregory Alldritt at No 8.
Argentina boss Felipe Contepomi switched his scrum-half giving Gonzalo Garcia a start instead of Gonzalo Bertranou after last Friday’s loss to Ireland.
Against the All Blacks, Les Bleus lost prop Tevita Tatafu to an early injury and loose-head Jean-Baptiste Gros suffered a similar fate after four minutes on Friday with a leg problem.
Gros’s injury was caused by Montoya’s dangerous clean at a ruck and the hooker was shown a yellow card.
Galthie’s side made the extra man count to open the scoring as Antoine Dupont fed lock Thibaud Flament to crash over from short range after a powerful rolling maul.
Thomas Ramos slotted the easy conversion to make it 7-0 after 11 minutes.
By the half hour mark the hosts lead 13-9 as Ramos traded penalty goals with Pumas fly-half Tomas Albornoz.
France stretched their advantage to 20-9 as winger Gabin Villiere dived over following some dominant forward carries.
– Lightning Bielle-Biarrey –
Ramos added the conversion to overtake Dimitri Yachvili in third place on France’s scoring charts.
Things worsened for Contepomi’s outfit as they conceded a penalty try with four minutes of the first half to play and had a second player sent to the bin.
Flanker Gonzalez was shown a yellow card for palming a loose ball into touch after Dupont and Ramos showed their class with delicate chip kicks.
France went into the break 30-9 ahead as Ramos slotted his third penalty of the game.
Just after the interval Galthie brought 20-year-old back-rower Marko Gazzotti on for his debut.
The flanker’s main intervention was to scramble onto a loose ball three metres from his own line before Les Bleus cleared with Argentina working their way back into the contest.
With 24 minutes to play they were rewarded as prop Thomas Gallo benefitted from a rolling maul and Albornoz brought the score to 30-16.
The Pumas’ comeback hopes were shortlived as Bielle-Biarrey scored his fourth try in three games, showing lightning speed to gather his own grubber kick.
Ramos converted to make it 37-16 leaving the south Americans, fourth at last year’s World Cup, with a mountain to climb in the final quarter.
The deficit was cut once again as Perpignan hooker Ignacio Ruiz, one of 10 French-based players in Argentina’s matchday squad, barreled over.
Albornoz took the score to 37-23 with his two-pointer with nine minutes to play but it wasn’t enough to claim a first win over France in Paris since 2014.
Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!
