Philippe Saint-Andre’s tough words help France battle past Romania

Scrumhalf Morgan Parra was busy and brilliant off the kicking tee, inside center Wesley Fofana scored for the first time since November, and winger Sofiane Guitoune nearly bagged a hat trick of tries.

Appointed team boss of Wales, for a while Kelly was one of rugby league’s hottest coaching properties, but after things turned sour at Widnes he found himself out of the game, other than a brief spell in charge of Leigh’s rugby department. Up until that point, the Romanians had dealt with everything that was thrown at them.

The Oaks forced France into eight turnovers in the first half but they couldn’t realistically keep that going for the entire game.

The French promptly cashed in with two tries in the right-hand corner in the space of three minutes.

France present tough first opponents for Romania, but Kelly says they are determined to enjoy tonight’s occasion and are confident they can at least give a good account of themselves.

Gaël Fickou added some gloss to the scoreline as Romania finally wilted.

“I don’t think many teams have that here”.

France was rattled and Romania should have gone ahead, only for Vlaicu to miss a kickable penalty.

Romania hit back just before the break, with Vlaic doubling their score to six with another penalty.

A Mexican wave whipped around the 50,626 crowd at the Olympic Park during a boring opening 15 minutes as the two forward packs got stuck into a meaty clash up front.

Despite some edgy periods in the first half, when Romania’s tireless work at the breakdown snagged French fluency, it managed five tries in a satisfactory night’s work.

Romania were gallant and gutsy but limited outside of a decent lineout maul, a strong scrum and some muscular sallies around the fringes of rucks, they are limited.

Saint-André’s halftime excoriation of his side had an effect, but while France were better, there were still too many errors in their performance.

Parra kicked another excellent conversion before Vlaicu cut France’s half-time lead to 17-6 with his second penalty.

They tackled feverishly and held out convincingly until the 66th minute when Guitoune added a second in the corner and the snakehips of Wesley Fofana put them out of sight at 31-6.

France: B Dulin; S Guitoune, G Fickou, W Fofana, N Nakaitaci; R Talès, M Parra; V Debaty, D Szarzewski (capt), U Atonio; B Le Roux, A Flanquart; Y Nyanga, F Quedraogo, L Picamoles.

Romania: C Fercu; M Lemnaru, P Kinikinilau, F Vlaicu, A Apostol; D Dumbrava, F Surugiu; M Lazar, O Turashvili, P Ion; V Poparlan, J van Heerden; V Ursache, V Lucaci, Mihai Macovei (capt).