Match Report

France Under-20s leave it late to secure comeback win against Italy

France u20
France recovered from a slow start to secure a 31-19 bonus-point victory over Italy and seal their first win of this year’s Under-20s Six Nations Championship.

France recovered from a slow start to secure a 31-19 bonus-point victory over Italy and seal their first win of this year’s Under-20s Six Nations Championship.

Les Bleus came into the game on the back of suffering a dramatic late 29-24 defeat at the hands of England last weekend and were looking to get their campaign back on track.

Italy, meanwhile, were out to make it two wins from two after enjoying a 17-7 win over Wales in their first game.

And it was the visitors who made the better start at Stade Maurice David as Italy took a 5-0 lead inside a minute after collecting kick-off and racing away for Christian Lai to score.

Having been caught cold by the lightning-quick Italy start, France looked to kickstart their evening but missed the chance to cut the deficit after seven minutes when Cheikh Tiberghien missed a penalty.

His failure from the kicking tee was punished further still soon after as a spell of Italy pressure saw Mateo Drudi go over before Paolo Garbisi added the extras.

It took a while for France to get going and they got on the scoreboard for the first time with 21 minutes on the clock.

Tiberghien was the man to get the home side back in the game and his score was made a maximum when Thibault Debaes slotted the conversion.

The try only briefly turned the momentum in France’s favour and they were on the back foot again in the 29th minute as Italy ran in their third try of the half.

This time it was Steve Varney who escaped the attention of the French defence to profit and Debaes was again on target to make it 19-7.

Crucially France were able to peg Italy back before the interval thanks to a Nathan Farissier try and second successful conversion from Debaes.

The hosts were perhaps fortunate to be within an unconverted try of their rivals at half time and the start of the second half proved to be a cagey affair.

Indeed, with a lead to defend Italy looked happy to rely on their defence after the restart as they attempted to restrict a French side which lacked a clinical edge throughout the night.

The Italian resilience was eventually broken with 65 minutes on the clock when a Debaes penalty reduced the arrears to 19-17 as the game approached its close.

Debaes missed the chance to put France ahead minutes later when his aim was found wanting from a penalty.

The miss ultimately wouldn’t cost France and they took the lead for the first time on the night the with 10 minutes to spare as Ethan Dumortier went over before Debaes converted.

They added gloss to the result with the final play of the game as a converted Yann Peysson effort completed the scoring.