They put their heart and energy into it, but the French lost once again against Australia. Narrowly, as is often the case, and the joy of the 2016 Olympic champions at the final whistle, experienced as a deliverance, demonstrated how much they had to draw on their reserves to overcome their tough opponents.
France opened the scoring with a try from Montserrat Amédée in the second minute, before being caught three minutes later through Maddison Levi (7-7). It was with this score of parity that the two teams arrived at the break, after Camille Grassineau was caught one meter from the line. Australia took the lead after the restart, with an unconverted try from Faith Nathan, but France came back to level (12-12) two minutes from time thanks to a corner try from Lou Noël Rivier, the fruit of intense defensive pressure from the Blues to recover the ball.
But a second try from Nathan, in the last minute and after a long run, allowed Australia to escape and join New Zealand in the final, who beat next-placed Fiji 33-22 opponent of the Bleues for the gain of third place (kick-off at 10:38 a.m.). The French men’s team faces the United States at 9:06 a.m. in a classification match for 7th place.
