Ill discipline almost cost France a win against Uruguay as Uruguay exposed several shortcomings in the French 2nd stringers' setup. France failed to secure a possible important bonus-point in their 27-12 win.
France opened the scoring with a Melvyn Jaminet converted penalty, off the back of a great scrum, to lead 03-00 after three minutes of play. However, Uruguay struck back almost immediately when they pounced on a mistake made by France allowing Felipe Etcheverry to score in the corner. This gave Uruguay a 05-03 lead after six minutes of play in the first half.
France started to dominate, using their speed of play, and after eleven minutes of play, Antoine Hastoy scored a great try, slicing through the defence of Uruguay to retake the lead 10-05.
Despite France's dominance, they could only add a converted penalty during the next fifteen minutes, whereafter Romain Taofifenua (France) was shown a yellow card for a high tackle.
Uruguay used their one-man advantage and started to ask questions to the French defence and had one try disallowed due to obstruction. France resumed their dominance once Romain Taofifenua returned and despite setting up camp in Uruguay's 22m the could not add any points and led 13-05 going into the second half.
Uruguay started the second half like a house on fire, however, it took Uruguay thirteen minutes in the second half before Baltazar Amaya scored in the corner to possibly set up the biggest surprise of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
However, France struck back almost immediately following great work by Peato Mauvaka to control a bouncing ball and bulldozing his way over Uruguay's tryline. France led 20-12 with twenty-four minutes still to play in the second half.
France launched wave after wave of attacks on the Uruguay tryline for an extended period until an overlap out wide opened up for Louis Bielle-Biarrey to score in the corner and extend France's lead to 27-12 which was also the final score.
Scorers:
France: Tries: Antoine Hastoy, Peato Mauvaka, Louis Bielle-Biarrey. Conversions: Melvyn Jaminet (3). Penalty: Melvyn Jaminet (2).
Uruguay: Tries: Nicolas Freitas, Baltazar Amaya. Conversion: Felipe Etcheverry
Teams:
France: 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 2 Pierre Bourgarit, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 4 Cameron Woki, 5 Romain Taofifenua, 6 Paul Boudehent, 7 Sekou Macalou, 8 Anthony Jelonch (c), 9 Maxime Lucu, 10 Antoine Hastoy, 11 Gabin Villière, 12 Yoram Moefana, 13 Arthur Vincent, 14 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 15 Melvyn Jaminet. Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Sipili Falatea, 19 Bastien Chalureau, 20 Thibaud Flament, 21 Francois Cros, 22 Baptiste Couilloud, 23 Thomas Ramos.
Uruguay: 1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Ignacio Peculo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Nicolas Freitas, 12 Andres Vilaseca (c), 13 Tomas Inciarte, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Baltazar Amaya. Replacements: 16 Facundo Gattas, 17 Matias Benitez, 18 Reinaldo Piussi, 19 Ignacio Dotti, 20 Lucas Bianchi, 21 Carlos Deus, 22 Agustin Ormaechea, 23 Felipe Berchesi.