Wayne Pivac admitted he was “desperately frustrated” after the Six Nations grand slam slipped through Wales’s fingers in agonising fashion. The head coach was also left to lament the decision not to award his side a second-half penalty try and conceded Les Bleus’ miraculous comeback had left him feeling numb.
Wales were leading 27-20 midway through the second half and were threatening the bonus-point try with a driving lineout which was stopped just short of the France line. The referee, Luke Pearce, ruled it was stopped illegally and showed the French prop Mohamed Haouas a yellow card but awarded just a penalty, which Dan Biggar kicked at goal.
France then had Paul Willemse sent off after making contact with the eye area of Wyn Jones but the home side threw caution to the wind and, with Wales losing Taulupe Faletau and Liam Williams to the sin-bin, Les Bleus scored two tries in the final four minutes, through Charles Ollivon and Brice Dulin. The second sealed a thrilling 32-30 victory, denying Wales the grand slam and ensuring France will claim the title if they beat Scotland on Friday with a bonus point and a winning margin of 21 points or more.
“Just desperately frustrating,” said Pivac. “The players got so close. We have to be proud of them. It’s quite a numb feeling. The boys had put in such a fantastic effort, the game went pretty much to plan in the first half. We were urging them on but to go from a potential grand slam to waiting another six days is frustrating.
“I thought we got a fantastic drive going, I thought we might get a bit more than a yellow card, maybe a penalty try. They would have been very difficult to beat at 34-20 – they would have to score three times. It wasn’t given so we had to continue. The penalty count got up and we were on a final warning.”
Willemse’s red card was the third shown against Wales’s opponents this Six Nations, after those received by Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony and Scotland’s Zander Fagerson. France’s head coach, Fabien Galthié, made the incendiary claim that Wales’ players specialise in getting opponents sent off. “If you watch it there is clearly no contact, or if there is it’s very limited,” he said. “If you really watch the reaction of the Welsh players, they specialise in making the opponents get red cards.”
Pivac opted not to take the bait but though France need an emphatic win on Friday to deny Wales the title, he believes Scotland will be up against it in Paris. “It’s a very, very good French side,” he added. “It’s going to be a tough ask for Scotland to come here and win but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
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