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Willemse: We are starting to make our own history

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Lock Paul Willemse reckons France are on track to make their own history after registering a second straight victory in the Guinness Six Nations.

Lock Paul Willemse reckons France are on track to make their own history after registering a second straight victory in the Guinness Six Nations.

Les Bleus followed up their 24-17 win over England with a 35-22 triumph against Italy in Paris on Sunday.

First-half tries from Teddy Thomas, Charles Ollivon and Grégory Aldritt sent France on their way as they led 23-10 at half-time.

Romain Ntamack and Baptiste Serin then went over to secure a bonus-point success that put France at the top of the Championship table.

And Willemse spoke of the positive vibe in the camp as Les Bleus chase their first title since 2010.

“Like I have been saying over the past few weeks there is a great atmosphere in our team with a lot of young guys that are just starting out in the squad,” Willemse said.

“We have a plan that we want to follow. It’s a roadmap so for us it’s about getting together and building our own history.

“That’s what we are starting to do now.”

France may have proved too strong for Italy but they did not have it all their own way at the Stade de France.

The Azzurri closed the gap to 13-10 on the half-hour mark thanks to Matteo Minnozzi’s converted try and a Tommaso Allan penalty.

They also scored two tries in the second period with Federico Zani and Mattia Bellini going over.

And Willemse insisted France needed to improve their discipline ahead of their Round 3 meeting with Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, February 22.

“It was definitely a bit frustrating at the end,” Willemse said.

“We got what we wanted. We got the bonus point, so we are happy with that.

“But in terms of our performance we made a lot of errors especially discipline-wise, so we want to fix that.

“In our previous game (discipline) wasn’t a big thing so we definitely want to fix that as quickly as possible.

“It’s not normal for us to (give away) all those penalties.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal but we will definitely focus on it in the weeks to come to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”