Rugby: Wales errors cost victory

Wales coach Warren Gatland says his side has to stop "pressing the self-destruct button" after losing 26-20 to France yesterday.

Wales trailed 20-0 at halftime but threatened to repeat their late comeback against Scotland before France regained their composure to hold on.

"I'm proud of the second-half performance," Gatland said. "We were 20 points down, victims of our own intercepts, and we could have given it away but I'm proud of what we did in terms of coming back.

"France never really threatened our line, they got two intercepts and kicked four penalties but never really got into our 22.

"We have to stop pushing the self-destruct button. We have a few things to work on to make sure we don't make critical mistakes, but if we hadn't conceded soft tries in the first half it was a game for us to win."

France's win, spurred by Welsh errors, mean they stay unbeaten halfway through the Six Nations and make a France-England Grand Slam showdown likely to produce the Six Nations titleholder.

France's first hat-trick since Marc Lievremont took charge two years ago left the Tricolors with home matches against Italy and unbeaten England to seal a Grand Slam for the first time since 2004.

The visitors led by 20-0 at halftime thanks to two intercept tries but eased off, allowing Wales to sniff at another comeback. Wales won from 21-9 down against Scotland two weekends ago, and rallied to within seven points of France after 63 minutes.

But the Welsh kept making errors and letting the pressure off France, and the visitors regained composure thanks to penalties by replacement first five-eighths Frederic Michalak and a third by halfback Morgan Parra.

Wales winger Shane Williams raced in for a last-minute converted try but the home side's fate was sealed.

After only seven minutes, centre James Hook threw a poor pass straight to France winger Alexis Palisson, who scampered from just inside the halfway line untouched to between the posts for an easy conversion by Parra.

Parra then booted his first penalty after Wales captain Ryan Jones was caught on the wrong side, and made it 13-0 when counterpart Richard Rees was harshly judged to be going over the top of a ruck, even though he had the ball.

France appeared to be content to wait for Welsh mistakes. The scrum impressed and the defence was quick to get in the faces of the home backs.

In the last move before halftime Williams tried to force a pass off the ground that France first five-eighths Francois Trinh-Duc grabbed and jogged to the line for another converted gift.

In the second half, Hook broke into the French 22 but his lob pass was too high for lock Bradley Davies, whose team-mates were wearing a black armband in honour of his mother who died last week.

Stephen Jones kicked a penalty, then another. On the hour mark, Williams came through the middle to launch winger Leigh Halfpenny to the corner. Jones' conversion cut the margin to 20-13 and the home crowd was hoping for more.

A yellow card to Parra gave Wales a man advantage, then a nice side-foot chip by Jones was scooped by inside centre Jamie Roberts who had one man to beat and Hook and another team-mate outside.

But he held on too long and botched the last pass.

In truth, it summed up Wales' night. A case of so near, so far, after once again leaving themselves with too much to do, although Williams provided that one late flash of genius.

France turned the relief into penalties at the other end, and left Wales needing to beat defending champion Ireland next to avoid meeting Italy in the last round for the wooden spoon.

France also had a well-educated defence picking apart at Wales' weaknesses from the first whistle.

The French showed a knack for knowing where the ball would go next that is a fine advertisement for the preparations made by the coaching team before the game. Both tries came from intercepts, but a more telling pass-mark for the defence was the way the French prevented Wales from even coming close to their tryline.

Wing Shane Williams added: "It was a bit of deja vu, the way we've started the last three games. It's very frustrating, sometimes you get punished for trying to play rugby.

"We try to play rugby, we started positive but two intercepts made it very difficult for us. Sometimes we try to play too much and it was all catch-up in the second half again."

France: 26 (Alexis Palisson, Francois Trinh-Duc tries; Morgan Parra 3 penalties, 2 conversions, Frederic Michalak penalty)
Wales: 20 (Leigh Halfpenny, Shane Williams tries; Stephen Jones 2 penalties, 2 conversions). HT: 20-0.