07/11/26 05:00:00
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07/11 04:59 CDT France storm back with 30 straight points to beat Australia
42-26
France storm back with 30 straight points to beat Australia 42-26
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) --- Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang scored two tries and
Romain Ntamack orchestrated a big comeback as France rallied for a 42-26 win
over Australia on Saturday in the second round of the rugby Nations
Championship.
The French led twice in the first half but trailed 21-12 at the break against a
Wallabies lineup that used a one-man advantage to score two tries while
Emmanuel Meafou was sidelined for 10 minutes for a yellow card.
But three tries in a seven-minute span, including two when Australian fullback
Tom Wright was on the sidelines for a yellow card, swung momentum fully in
favor of the back-to-back Six Nations champions.
France, on the rebound from a tournament-opening 34-32 loss to New Zealand,
scored 30 consecutive points in a dominating performance after halftime,
including tries for Grandidier-Nkanang, Ntamack, Florian Verhaeghe and Theo
Attissogbe. Australia crossed in the 76th minute for a consolation try.
France will travel to Tokyo to play Japan next week. The Wallabies, after the
33-31 loss to Ireland in the first round and the big defeat to France, will go
to Perth, Western Australia, to take on Italy in a bid to break a six-test
losing streak.
In an eventful first half for Meafou, who grew up in Australia before moving to
France to pursue a professional contract, he scored the opening try in the
third minute and also received the yellow card.
Australia responded six minutes later following a trick lineout move involving
hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa throwing to scrumhalf Ryan Lonergan at the front,
getting the return pass and starting the movement that finished with him
scoring.
France went ahead again in the 18th when Grandidier-Nkanang beat rookie
Australian flyhalf Duncan Meredith in the chase for Ntamack's
perfectly-weighted stab kick into the left corner from 30 meters out.
In the 25th, with France leading 12-7, Meafou was carded for making
head-on-head contact with Australian backrower Rob Valentini and that gave the
Wallabies extra space to attack.
Fraser McReight scored twice in the 10 minutes with a one-man advantage, both
from close-range.
The Australian flanker also saved a try just before halftime when he beat a
flying Matthieu Jalibert in a race for the ball into the in-goal.
The second half was one-way, with the burst of scoring starting in the 49th
when the French used numbers out wide and Jalibert kicked wide for an unmarked
winger Grandidier-Nkanang to score in the corner.
France took the lead with a solo try from Ntamack, who ran down the short
sideside from about 22-meters out, dummied, palmed off a defender and crashed
over in a tackle in the 52nd, and conversion from skipper Maxime Lucu.
The French kept applying the pressure and turned big advantages in possession
and territory into points before the result was beyond Australia's reach.
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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
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