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PARIS - France coach Bernard Laporte was left bemoaning his side's "lack of juice" after their 14-9 rugby World Cup semi-final defeat to old rivals England.
France battled past tournament favourites New Zealand in the quarter-finals, making a staggering 178 tackles in the shock 20-18 win, and Laporte said his players had faced the English on Saturday short of some gas in the tank.
"We lacked a bit of juice compared to the previous match," said Laporte, who will now leave his job as coach to take up the post of junior sports minister in the French government.
"It seemed as if there were a little lack of juice to create the difference, to bring a little bit more rhythm," he said of a nail-biting game that opened with a Josh Lewsey try in under two minutes.
The match at the Stade de France turned with six minutes to go, replacement hooker Dimitri Szarzewski came in rashly with a high tackle on Jason Robinson, and Jonny Wilkinson made no mistake with the simple penalty from in front of the posts.
Just three minutes later, Wilkinson found himself in the pocket after a solid drive by the English forwards, and slotted a magnificent 35-metre drop-goal to break French hearts.
"We folded a little under the English hits," acknowledged Laporte.
"They really are big men and we didn't feel that we could create a break at any given moment, although we enjoyed a lot of possession."
The French gameplan against England has come under fire, the deep kicking game not producing the same results as against the All Blacks, who were more than willing to try to counter-attack.
The experienced English side, however, were content to kick the ball back to France and wait patiently for the mistakes to come.
Laporte said his abiding memory from the game would be Wilkinson's drop-goal.
"If I had to keep one image, it would be the drop goal from Wilkinson which meant it was finished, even it we had possession of the ball one or two times after that," he said.
He added that Joe Worsley's tap-tackle on Vincent Clerc in the dying minutes as the French winger broke into the 22m area would also stay with him.
"If we scored, we were in the final. But there is also the slip of Damien Traille in the second minute (which led to Josh Lewsey's try). There are always sad images after a defeat."
Laporte said that the defeat was tougher to take than the 24-7 semi-final defeat in the last World Cup in Australia because the teams had been much more even this time around.
"In 2003, they were better then us. In fact they were better than everyone. They were like the New Zealand of this tournament - the favourite, except they went all the way.
"This time it's harder because yesterday (Saturday) it was 50/50."
England will now face the winner of South Africa v Argentina in Paris on Saturday. France take on the loser in the third-place game on Friday.
France manager Jo Maso insisted that the team would focus fully on the "bronze medal" match.
"We are the organisers of the World Cup. And we are proud to be a big team. After the disappointment we have to lift our heads as if we are champions. We want to leave with our heads held high and must give it our all," he said.
- AFP
