There was a time when it took something special to win in Paris but now all a team need are the basics. Wales sorted out their set pieces – which they used to get their hard-running backs over the gainline – tackled with relish and kicked their penalties in claiming a victory that put them back in the title race after the opening night defeat to England.
France huffed without puff. Beating them, even here, means little in the wider context any more. Ireland in Cardiff next week will ask considerably more of Wales who could hardly believe their fortune when France started running from deep early, moves foundering through sloppy passes, poor handling and a lack of understanding. It was sad to see, like a boxer well past his prime trying to revisit past glories, the fight getting more distant from them with each attempted blow.
Philippe Saint-André said his players lacked basic skills, which begged two questions: why he picked them and what has happened to the standard of coaching throughout France? The team, making their final appearance of the campaign in Paris, did a circuit of the pitch at the end, a lap of dishonour that attracted, from those who remained, jeers and whistles.
“People will be asking what is going on and they are right to put the question,” said the France scrum-half, Morgan Parra. “We lacked fluency throughout.” Wales went 12 years from 1982 without beating France home or away but they recorded a fourth successive victory for the first time since the 1950s. They talked about having a tilt at the title but the bruises inflicted by England have still to fade and they remain a side competent at dealing with the expected but vulnerable when they are exposed to uncertainty.
However, they have developed a gem of a player in their scrum-half, Rhys Webb. He created his side’s try on the hour with characteristic awareness after Mathieu Bastareaud had sabotaged a France counterattack by losing the ball. Webb spotted dozing guards at a ruck and shot through a gap: the flanker Dan Lydiate read the play, receiving and giving the ball to Dan Biggar in one graceful movement and the fly-half had the room to see off Brice Dulin.
Wales need to replicate that reflexive play more if they are to start regularly beating those above them in the world rankings. They were tactically outwitted in Dublin last year and their record against Ireland in Cardiff since 1983 is wretched – with only two victories in that period. Their main concern at the start of this week is the knee injury that forced off their captain Sam Warburton 11 minutes from the end. He will be assessed when the swelling subsides.
Warburton was among Wales’s 2013 Lions who were at the heart of the victory, pivotal at the breakdown. Alun Wyn Jones seemed to take criticism of Wales’s recent forward displays personally, driving himself into the loose turf; Gethin Jenkins, while still struggling up front, is a prop like no other in the loose, although his opposite number Eddy Ben Arous did a passable impression; Jamie Roberts thrived on lineout possession and the visitors used the width of the pitch to involve Jonathan Davies and George North.
Their overt superiority should have produced a more emphatic victory, but Wales are not given to cutting loose. “We always seem to want to do it the hard way,” Roberts said. “We played all the rugby in the first half but our defence secured us an ugly victory in what was a great team effort. We have improved every game so far this year and will have to continue that to beat Ireland.”
Wales are at least looking up even if they do not yet look up to winning the title. Blue is meanwhile the colour for the 2011 World Cup finalists who are locked in another scrap in the basement. “We do not play like France,” bemoaned one supporter on a train to Gare du Nord hours after the latest home defeat. “We are like South Africa, big and direct. We want our rugby back. What happened to French flair?” Flare-ups even. It is time for unreconstruction.
France Dulin; Huget, Lamerat (Bastareaud, 16), Fofana (Tales, 69), Guitoune; Lopez, Parra (Tillous-Borde, 52); Ben Arous (Debaty, 52), Guirado (Kayser, 52), Slimani (Atonio, 52), Taofifénua (Suta, 60), Maestri, Dusautoir (capt), Le Roux, Chouly (Goujon, 73).
Try Dulin. Con Lopez. Pens Lopez 2.
Wales Halfpenny; North, J Davies, Roberts, L Williams; Biggar (Priestland, 75), Webb; Jenkins (James, 69), Baldwin (Hibbard, 69), Lee (Jarvis, 79), Charteris (B Davies, 69), AW Jones, Lydiate, Warburton (capt; Tipuric, 69), Faletau.
Try Biggar. Pens Halfpenny 5.
Referee J Peyper (SA). Attendance 80,000.