Wales head coach Wayne Pivac admitted there were’ too many mistakes’ from his side after being beaten 38-21 by France in Paris
It was Wales’ fourth consecutive defeat under Pivac, and also their heaviest loss against France since 2011
As a warm-up match for the delayed Six Nations game against Scotland next weekend, he asked more questions than answers as France ran into five tries to wipe out the lead 10 Wales points
« They really deserved the result and capitalized on a lot of our mistakes which was disappointing on our side, » said Pivac
« They certainly got a lot of balls in the tackle, and they punished us a lot in that area
« I thought we started well in both halves, but there were too many mistakes on our end tonight
« There were a lot of air battles tonight, and we weren’t good enough in the air at night
« We gave too much of the ball to the French in open play There were also three turnovers at critical times for us. We must be much better next week »
Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones set a world record equaling the 148th test match appearance, although he appeared to be on the receiving side with an elbow in the face of French lock Bernard Le Roux
The incident went unnoticed by match officials and Pivac added: « I did not see the incident myself, but I was told about it
« I’m sure the officials in charge will take a look if they think there’s something in it »
Wales couldn’t rely on a rolling start which saw them take a 10-0 lead thanks to a try from full-back Leigh Halfpenny and a conversion and penalty by the half-flight Dan Biggar
But France responded with two tries from French scrum-half Antoine Dupont, while mainstay Cyril Baille also crossed paths, with three conversions from Romain Ntamack giving France the control they never gave up.
Captain Charles Ollivon and winger Teddy Thomas added touchdowns in the second half, both converted by Ntamack, who also threw a penalty, and Wales added a try by substitute Nicky Smith and two other Biggar penalties, although he also missed three shots on goal
“I think you could see we were a little rusty,” said Pivac “We got out of the lockout and there wasn’t a lot of big rugby played
« There were similar comments from the players afterwards. It was a big step forward from what they have been doing in recent months
« They’ll be better at it, but we’ll take a look at this performance and look at the areas we need to work on during the week
« We need to make fewer mistakes I think we’ve left a few tries so we need to be a little more clinical with these scoring opportunities
« Scotland were certainly very good against Georgia (Friday) Hopefully we put a lot more pressure on Scotland than Georgia but we will look at our own game
« We will make sure we improve at all levels. Scotland will be a very tough opponent, and we will have to play much better than tonight to get a result »
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« too many mistakes » in France defeat
