good match, am a bit annoyed that we threw away a 13 - 3 lead, but we've done it before - last time we were in Paris we went 14 - 0 up in the first 10 mins or so with tries from Popham and Shanklin, and we lost something like 32 - 21.
Wales do have a long way to go to being a dominant side in world rugby, and this really highlighted it. For the first time in a while, we looked confused as ouyr tactics crumbled to pieces. I thought Gatland would change the loose kicks strategy well before the match, because th simple fact is - the French back 3 can score/set up tries from anywhere and everywhere. Apparently not though...
I thought the Referee was bad all round - missing 2 Yellows on Shanklin and Ryan Jones - ones that would easily have been given by a different ref, and missed a lot of forward passes :huh: what is it with the French and pulling forward passes off? The barging at the line out at the end annoyed me too, since it was pretty obvious that the French team didn;t give a monkeys arse about giving away penalties, and the just tried to do anything to stop us scoring. Guess it worked. Ah well, I've got no real complaints though, since if Wales had been 21 - 16 up at last play with the french trying to score, they';d have done exactly the same.
All I can really say though is, Paris is ALWAYS hard, even peobably the greatest Welsh side ever, containing the likes of Phil Bennett, Gareth Edwards, JPR and other greats always struggled out there, and rarely won. Championship hopes are still alive, and we're more than capable of beating Ireland at home, though it'll be hard.
