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Chouly: France staying positive despite defeat

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Damien Chouly admits France were their worst own enemies in Cardiff but the French back-row forward is adamant that defeat has not affected the mood in the camp.

Damien Chouly admits France were their worst own enemies in Cardiff but the French back-row forward is adamant that defeat has not affected the mood in the camp.

George North’s try and 14 points from the boot of Dan Biggar saw Wales inflict a 19-10 defeat on Les Bleus – their first loss since Guy Noves took charge.

Guilhem Guirado did cross late on for a consolation score for France – who wasted a number of good opportunities either side of the hour mark at Principality Stadium.

But defeat means Chouly and co slip to third in the standings before the trip to Scotland in round four.

“In terms of the spirit of the side there is nothing wrong at all and we must keep it that way,” he said.

“Once again we defended really well in the first half. That is a positive but you never want to be defending as much as that.

“We have to try and get our hands on the ball to impose our own game, we gave it back to Wales too easily – probably because we still lack a bit of cohesion.

“We struggled to get into rhythm and develop our game and we didn’t crack – apart from their try which came from a counter-attack.

“We made a couple of defensive errors but everyone gave their all to make up for it and save the team.”

Noves’ reign began with two successive narrow victories over Italy and Ireland before this first setback in Cardiff.

But with an inexperienced side – Noves’ starting XV in Wales had only 243 caps between them of which Chouly, Guirado and Maxime Medard made up almost half – the Clermont man insists the future is bright.

“I hope this is a team with a future – we didn’t give up, no-one folded and when Wales made breaks there was always someone there to save the team,” he added.

“We have to believe. We had many chances to score a try but we couldn’t quite finish it off. That would have allowed us to make a comeback a bit earlier in the match and hopefully plant a seed of doubt.

“We made mistakes with the ball in contact and turned it over – that’s why I am disappointed but this group will learn from the defeat.”

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