The French XV won slightly against Uruguay, for the 2nd day of the Rugby World Cup (27-12). The South Americans have even supplanted the Blues in several sectors.
Often, the public of Lille (or rather of Villeneuve-d’Ascq) asked, while singing, if they could hear “these ferocious soldiers bellowing”. One thing’s for sure: They didn’t roar. The French XV painfully won against Uruguay, failing to pocket the offensive bonus hoped for during this second day of the World Cup. A victory certainly essential (27-12) but with worrying content. So yes, there were no frames, left to rest. But the 23 players aligned Thursday evening by Fabien Galthié failed, even being dominated in several sectors by valiant Teros, who emerged victorious in essential sectors.
Offensively, the Uruguayans were attractive. Playing without any pressure, the South Americans pushed the Blues who never really got into their game. With 117 passes completed in 80 minutes, Uruguay were more enterprising (96 for France). And with 18 broken tackles (13 for France) as well as 5 defenders beaten (compared to 4), there were many imbalances created by Los Teros.
An offensive dynamic largely enabled by the efficiency of the Ciel et Blanc forwards. If the fight was tough in the opening against the All Blacks, the Blues clearly lost the game this Thursday evening. With 70 rucks won against 52, Uruguay showed constant effort in this area, even scraping 9 ground balls on French offensives (compared to 5 for France). France barely compensated by dominating in the scrum, despite conceding a few penalties.
This was also the surprise of the evening: the French team had great difficulty countering the Uruguayan mauls. On numerous occasions, the Teros forwards managed to contain the French assaults in this sector, recovering 3 balls, when their opponents achieved a perfect 6/6 in this exercise. Several times, the Blues had the ball taken away, seeing their playing intentions annihilated, without ever finding, for their part, the solution to prevent Uruguay from building thanks to this sector of play.
