The Albany Gazette - France hail heavyweights, Wales turn focus on wooden spoon showdown

Fly-half Thomas Ramos kicked 20 points and scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec was outstanding as France outscored Wales by five tries to three, moving into third spot in the tournament table on points difference from Scotland.

A raft of second-half replacements guaranteed the victory at the Principality Stadium as French strength in depth shone through against an inexperienced Wales team in full development.

France, Wales coach Warren Gatland acknowledged, had "impact and size off their bench, they had a significant impact".

The result leaves France to play England in Lyon next weekend with a shot at runners-up position behind leaders Ireland, while Wales find themselves in a wooden spoon shoot-out with Italy in Cardiff.

"It's always a big game for us against England, we always expect a big 'crunch'," Alldritt said, a day after England edged the Irish 23-22 at the whistle.

"We're going to attack this game because England are showing some good rugby."

France coach Fabien Galthie added: "It's France-England. Just stating the title says it all. It's France-England, in the Six Nations tournament, it's the last match. That sets the stakes for us. And it's in France.

"We must finish at the same tempo, the same intensity than today."

Alldritt said the team had reacted well against Wales after a disappointing 13-all draw with Italy.

"We had a great performance today, we were really frustrated after Italy and wanted to make France proud again so it's great to do that at this stadium," he said.

"This victory does a lot of good. We worked very hard this week and we managed to translate all that work into this match."

Alldritt added: "We have a massive, massive pack, and we wanted to be tough on the collision.

"We had to use our pack and we did it well. It's going to be a big fight against England. They have made enormous progress defensively. We know that France-England is always special."

- No hiding for Wales -

Wales' Gatland insisted that there would be no hiding in the run-up to the wooden spoon decider against Italy.

"It's massive for us," Gatland said. "We've got to be excited by it, embrace it, we can't shy away from it. You can't go into your shell."

Gatland, in his second reign as Wales coach, added: "There's going to be a lot of pressure and expectation, we've just got to embrace that... and give a performance at home."

Italy's 31-29 victory over Scotland on Saturday ensures a humdinger of a finish at the Principality Stadium for Wales, winless from their four matches in the tournament.

"I thought it was a good performance from Italy and good for the tournament (creating) a lot of jeopardy, it creates a lot of excitement," Gatland said.

"Physically they're in pretty good shape. It's going to be a challenge for us and massive for them because they want to be in the best possible position in the Six Nations."

"And we don't want to finish bottom," something that last happened to the Welsh back in 2003.

Gatland insisted that the visit of the Azzurri was "a must-win game, it's about stepping up and learn from the things we've been doing".

"We've got a young group of players who some of them aren't quite ready at this level and got to learn very quickly what Test match rugby is about."

The New Zealander pinpointed a moment in the match against France when Wales led 24-23, but conceded a converted try that saw the visitors pull away.

"At six points down, it's one of those games you stay in the game.... play territory, put some pressure on them. Unfortunately I think we overplayed it," he said.

"We hurt ourselves and did not play well enough in that last period."

(F.Allen--TAG)