Welsh pack's collapse gives Betsen room to run riot

Wales 22 France 29

There used to be two folk-hero communities in Wales, the members of which spent backbreakingly hard lives in dark, smelly, dangerous environments without a glimpse of sunshine or a breath of fresh air. The miners disappeared 20 years ago, give or take a few months on the picket line; the front-rowers, who used to include flesh-and-blood legends such as Charlie Faulkner and Graham Price among their number, are going the same way, only with less of a fight. Unless their demise is arrested, along with the man responsible for coaching the current Welsh scrum, the road ahead leads to oblivion.

The Red Dragonhood were slaughtered at the set-piece yesterday and as a direct consequence, their inventive and ambitious runners were rendered as redundant as a shift-full of pitworkers. Stephen Jones, Iestyn Harris and the Williams boys on the wings all looked capable of great things, as did Ceri Sweeney when he took the field in the last few minutes, but without a pair of reliable props in front of them, they spent far too long on the outside looking in.

Or rather, looking at a French pack on the rampage. Fabien Pelous and his tight five dominated the scrums to such an extent that Serge Betsen and Imanol Harinordoquy were given the run of the park. The two flankers are quite threatening enough when the set-piece contest is close. As yesterday's match-up at the sharp end was not a contest at all, they were positively lethal.

Harinordoquy made the first crucial intervention at the fag-end of the first half. Frédéric Michalak, a stand-off with all the attitude as well as all the talents, was sold down the River Taff by his scrum-half, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who broke the momentum of a useful-looking attack by throwing a head-high pass. Yet in the twinkling of an eye, Michalak spotted an alternative route down the short side. Once he had wrong-footed the Welsh defence with a round-the-houses scamper and found Vincent Clerc in support, Harinordoquy was able to finish the move with a loping finish down the right touch-line.

Wales were still at the party, for the try gave France only the slenderest of interval advantages. But the visitors, 13-12 ahead, upped the pace from the restart - Elissalde, a dead-eye kicker, banged over two penalties in short order - and when Sylvain Marconnet and Pieter de Villiers wrecked another Welsh scrum on 56 minutes, Betsen tore away down the left and found his scrum-half with a killer pass out of contact. The Biarritz flanker's delivery, an underarm flick from an extraordinarily oblique angle that sent Elissalde in from the best part of 50 metres, may well have been marginally forward, but only a cold-hearted philistine could have quibbled with its majesty.

France then introduced Jean-Jacques Crenca, their most destructive scrummager - a move that squeezed the very pips out of the Welsh front row and left Gethin Jenkins, forced to play both tight and loose-head roles, crying for mercy. Under the circumstances, it beggared belief that Colin Charvis, the home captain, should elect to scrummage a series of penalties awarded deep in the French 22. Perhaps the physical battering had made mincemeat of his critical faculties, as well as his body.

Pretty much down and out, despite the best efforts of Michael Owen in the second row, Wales spirited enough ball away from the French eight in the final quarter to create a couple of tries. The first, which featured a lovely triangular move between Jones, Harris and Rhys Williams, was disallowed because Tom Shanklin wiped out both Michalak and Damien Traille with a dummy run in front of the ball. The second, finished by Martyn Williams, was legal enough, but it came with little more than 90 left seconds on the clock and was consolatory at best.

Sadly, there is no consolation in the thought that the powder-puff Welsh pack must square up to the English forwards at Twickenham in 12 days' time - especially as the world champions will be in point-proving mood. Maybe the miners had it easier, after all.

Wales 22
Try: M Williams
Con: S Jones
Pens: S Jones 5

France 29
Tries: Harinordoquy, Elissalde
Cons: Elissalde 2
Pens: Elissalde 5

Half-time: 12-13 Att: 72,500

WALES: G Thomas (Celtic Warriors); R Williams (Cardiff Blues), M Taylor (Llanelli Scarlets), I Harris (Cardiff Blues), S Williams (Neath-Swansea Ospreys); S Jones (Llanelli Scarlets), G Cooper (Celtic Warriors); I Thomas (Llanelli Scarlets), M Davies (Warriors), G Jenkins (Celtic Warriors), B Cockbain (Celtic Warriors), M Owen (Newport-Gwent Dragons), J Thomas (Neath-Swansea Ospreys), C Charvis (Tarbes, capt), D Jones (Llanelli Scarlets). Replacements: M Williams (Cardiff Blues) for Charvis 13-20 and 27-32, and for D Jones 59; D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets) for Cooper 49; B Evans (Cardiff Blues) for I Thomas 59; T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues) for Taylor 61; G Llewellyn (Neath-Swansea Ospreys) for Cockbain 63; C Sweeney (Celtic Warriors) for Harris 71; I Thomas for Jenkins 71; H Bennett (Cardiff Blues) for Davies 77.

FRANCE: N Brusque (Biarritz); V Clerc (Toulouse), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), D Traille (Pau), C Dominici (Stade Français); F Michalak (Toulouse), J-B Elissalde (Toulouse); S Marconnet (Stade Français), W Servat (Toulouse), P De Villiers (Stade Français), F Pelous (Toulouse, capt), P Papé (Bourgoin), S Betsen (Biarritz), I Harinordoquy (Pau), T Lièvremont (Biarritz). Replacements: J-J Crenca (Agen) for Marconnet 57; O Magne (Montferrand) for Lièvremont 57; Y Bru (Toulouse) for Servat 67; D Yachvili (Biarritz) for Elissalde 71; C Heymans (Toulouse) for Michalak 79.

Referee: S Dickinson (Australia).