Serin Directs France to Impressive win in Argentina

With players from the Top 14 Semi Finalists unavailable Guy Noves looked wider for his two-test tour of Argentina. One name who got an opportunity is Baptiste Serin and he took it with both arms delivering an excellent performance.

France’s 27-0 win implies that France had it easy. To the contrary France won the match by showing that the players are capable of. Argentina lacked a second fly half to support Nicolás Sánchez and lacked the required execution though the result is more an indication of France finding its feet – a scary thought for the rugby world.

Having failed to capitalize on two early chances France finally opened the scoring in the 25th minute. The first points came from Bordeaux scrum half Baptiste Serin who landed a routine penalty.

With the opening half coming to a close Serin would contribute even greater. Louis Picamoles ran from the base of a scrum in France’s half to offload to Serin. With defenders Manuel Montero and Tomás Cubelli both attracted Serin ran down the right flank, into the Argentine 22 where he passed to Hugo Bonneval to went over under the posts.

Serin’s conversion gave the Europeans a 10-0 half time lead. He would then go on to make it a 13-0 scoreline in the 45th minute. His second penalty came following an Argentine turnover in their own half.

Serin’s next contribution saved France from a potential try. Having taken a kick in his 22 he showed vision to get France out of jail and the result was an attacking scrum 5 meters out. The Clermont-bound Rémi Lamerat would score several phases after the scrum.

Now 20-0 down Los Pumas looked to inject themselves against a comfortable France. Their eagerness to score was unbalanced though and saw Maxime Medard scoring a try in the left corner. The TMO, however, disallowed it based on Yoann Maestri having illegally cleaned out Matías Moroni by using no arms in a ruck.

A second missed chance by France followed with loosehead prop Jefferson Poirot breaking the line only for Martín Landajo to stop him. The replacement Pumas number 9 knocked the ball out of the Bordeaux prop’s hands just a metre short of the posts.

It mattered not as Loann Goujon scored from the resulting scrum. Having wheeled the South Americans France stole the ball and were awarded a penalty. Quick play then saw Goujon diving over. Upon scoring Lavanini entered with his knee and was subsequently yellow carded by referee Wayne Barnes.

The score would be the final try of the match. In failing to trouble the scorers Argentina were kept scoreless by France for the first time since 1949.

ARGENTINA 0

FRANCE 27
Tries – H. Bonneval, R. Lamerat, L. Goujon
Cons – B. Serin 3
Pens – B. Serin 2

ARGENTINA
1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustín Creevy (capt.), 3 Ramiro Herrera, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 8 Facundo Isa, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Manuel Montero, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Santiago Cordero, 15, Joaquín Tuculet

Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Santiago García Botta, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Tomás Lezana, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 21 Martín Landajo, 22 Matías Orlando, 23 Lucas González Amorosino

FRANCE
1 Jefferson Poirot, 2 Rémi Bonfils, 3 Uini Atonio, 4 Julien Le Devedec, 5 Yoann Maestri (capt.), 6 Loann Goujon, 7 Kevin Gourdon, 8 Louis Picamoles, 9 Baptiste Serin, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 11 Djibril Camara, 12 Rémi Lamerat, 13 Gaël Fickou, 14 Hugo Bonneval, 15 Maxime Médard

Replacements: 16 Clément Maynadier, 17 Lucas Pointud, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Paul Jedrasiak, 20 Kélian Galletier, 21 Sébastien Bézy, 22 Jules Plisson, 23 Julien Rey

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU)
Assistants: John Lacey (IRFU) & Luke Pearce (RFU)
TMO: Johan Greeff (SARU)