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Wales barely played any rugby at all as an implosion from France saw them eliminated from RWC 2019 in Oita. France were far better than Wales and had been in firm control only to lose 20-19 following a late try to the Dragons.
In winning the match Wales will now travel to Yokohama where they will face the winner of Japan vs South Africa in the second Semi Final. The winer of that match will play the winner of England vs New Zealand in the Final.
France will look back on their performance with great sadness. It was an implosion in which they had dominated play, including outscoring Wales by three tries to two. The difference on the scoreboard was down to goal-kicking though there was also a red card to France as well as a gift try from France to Wales.
The man sent off was second-rower Sébastien Vaha’amahina. His moment of madness saw him elbowing Aaron Wainwright in the face. The act of foul play was an automatic red card and for France it saw them down to 14-men for the majority of the second half.
In the second half Wales held France scoreless. This was the case despite France missing points in the form of turning down penalties, missing drop-goals and kicking for the corner only to not capitalize when it mattered.
The villain of the match was Vaha’amahina though he was also the hero early on. Five minutes into play the Clermont second-rower went over for a try. The French backs and forwards were finding holes with ease which saw Charles Ollivon scoring France’s second just three minutes later.
An opportunistic play from Aaron Wainwright opened the scoring for Wales. The Dragons flanker found a gift loose ball from a messy ruck and ran over to cancel out Ollivon’s try. Fly half Dan Biggar converted the try and also landed a penalty eight minutes later. With it the scores were France 12-10 Wales after 20 minutes.
The match may have been close on the scoresheet though France were playing all of the rugby. Their third try came to Fijian import Virimi Vakatawa. The outside center combined with Damian Penaud to blitz the defense and score.
In the second half France failed to score. They replaced Romain Ntamack with Camille Lopez at fly half and looked to have control of play. Instead Biggar landed a 54th minute penalty and France went down to 14-men.
The scores remained 19-13 until the final minutes. Penalties to Wales saw them getting into the French 22 to give themselves opportunities for an unlikely win. It would come through Ross Moriarty who scored a controversial try wherein the ball visibly went forward only for referee Jaco Peyper to deem it not obvious. It mattered not as the decision was made and Wales secured a spot in the Semi Finals.
SCORING
WALES (20)
Try: Wainwright (12′), Moriarty (74′)
Conversion: Biggar (13′, 75′)
Penalty: Biggar (20′, 54′)
FRANCE (19)
Try: Vaha’amahina (5′), Ollivon (8′), Vakatawa (31′)
Conversion: Ntamack (9′, 32′)
TEAMS
WALES
1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Jake Ball, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (capt.), 6 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Justin Tipuric, 8 Josh Navidi, 9 Gareth Davies, 10 Dan Biggar, 11 Josh Adams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 13 Jonathan Davies, 14 George North, 15 Liam Williams
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Rhys Carré, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Adam Beard, 20 Ross Moriarty, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Owen Watkin
FRANCE
1 Jefferson Poirot, 2 Guilhem Guirado (capt.), 3 Rabah Slimani, 4 Bernard le Roux, 5 Sébastien Vaha’amahina, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 7 Charles Ollivon, 8 Grégory Alldritt, 9 Antoine Dupont, 10 Romain Ntamack, 11 Yoann Huget, 12 Gaël Fickou, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 14 Damian Penaud, 15 Maxime Médard
Replacements: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Emerick Setiano, 19 Paul Gabrillagues, 20 Louis Picamoles, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Camille Lopez, 23 Vincent Rattez
