The Wallabies lost their captain but won the war with a dramatic seven tries to two victory over a panicky French rugby union side at Suncorp Stadium tonight.
Wallabies destroy Les Bleus
Sadly, Stephen Moore was only four minutes into his debut Test as Wallabies skipper when he suffered a medial ligament injury.
He went off for scans after the match but all indications are that he will be struggling to figure in the two remaining Tests in this series against Les Bleus, in Melbourne next Saturday, and in Sydney on June 21.
The lowest rugby Test crowd at Suncorp Stadium since its redevelopment, 33,718, witnessed the biggest score ever by Australia at home against France as the Wallabies broke their three-year run of opening Test defeats by beginning their 2014 campaign in dramatic style with a 50-23 victory.
The victory gave Australia five Test wins in a row for the first time since Robbie Deans began his stint as Wallabies boss back in 2008, with current coach Ewen McKenzie having set his side to open the year with a win after the Wallabies had lost to Samoa in 2011, Scotland in 2012 and the British and Irish Lions last year in their opening internationals.
“I think winning the first Test which was something we hadn’t done for a few years,” McKenzie said. “Scoring seven tries was a statement of good intent. I thought everyone out there did a good job.”
Two late French tries, the second of them a penalty try after the Australian scrum disintegrated right on its own line after the full-time siren took the edge off an otherwise brilliant performance by McKenzie’s team and put the Wallabies on notice that Les Bleus are never to be taken lightly.
Certainly the Wallabies would be unwise to rest on their laurels with French coach Philippe Saint Andre warning that he will make dramatic changes to his side next week, bringing in injured tour captain Thierry Dusautoir and all the players he rested this week after their outing last weekend in the Top 14 final.
Still, by any measure, the French were only in the contest for the first 15 minutes and the last 10, by which time the Australians seemed to have switched off.
When replacement centre Kurtley Beale crossed for Australia’s seventh try in the 67th minute, anything looked possible.
Certainly their record defeat of France, 59-16 at Stade de France in 2010, looked certain to be overhauled but about the only part of the Australian performance that did not go to plan was that they did not get the lift they were hoping for from their bench.
Otherwise, the night was a triumph, most especially for the only debutant in the Australian side, lock Sam Carter, who did his Wallabies father, Dave, proud by winning the Man of the Match award in his first outing in the gold jersey.
Certainly it was well-deserved, although no-one could have quibbled had the award been presented instead to loosehead prop James Slipper or stand-in captain Michael Hooper.
The Wallabies would have been delighted with their first-half effort as they headed to the sheds at half-time — except that, in keeping with McKenzie’s drive to revive tried and true practices, they remained on the pitch during the break.
Aside from the Moore injury, the Wallabies put together a near-flawless opening half during which they scored four tries — to fullback Israel Folau, winger Adam Ashley-Cooper, stand-in captain Michael Hooper and inside centre Matt Toomua.
Admittedly, Les Bleus looked almost chaotically disorganised out wide at times, prompting Hooper, in one of his first decisions as captain to ignore an easy shot at goal in the 17th minute and have Toomua instead kick to the corner after an early Bernard Foley penalty goal had been cancelled out by a Frederic Michalak field goal.
One minute later, Folau was celebrating his first Test try of 2014, and the 11th of his brief Test career courtesy of two outstanding offloads, the first by No 8 Wycliff Palu to Slipper and then another by the loose-head himself, freeing up the Wallabies fullback out wide.
French captain Nicolas Mas lunged at him but any time it is Folau on a tight forward, it is a massive mismatch and so it proved on this occasion.
Five minutes later, the Wallabies again were celebrating, this time for Ashley-Cooper’s try after Foley had caught the French defence flat-footed by pushing through a well-weighted grubber for left winger Nick Cummins.
Immediately, the Wallabies swung the ball right and although the French defence scrambled to force an extra phase, they ran out of answers when Nic White’s long pass from the ruck base found Toomua who unloaded in the tackle to his unmarked vice-captain.
It was not that the visitors disintegrated from this point but certainly they all too readily lost their shape as the Wallabies stepped up the tempo of the game.
A further three tries followed in the second half, with Beale’s injection into the game proving a real success.
Appropriately, he scored his from a pop pass from co-centre Tevita Kuridrani after having unleashed the giant Brumbies battering ram with an excellent wide pass that sent him spearing through a gaping hole in the French defence.
