The Albany Gazette - Alldritt hails team performance as France outclass Wales

The French, with returning scrum-half and skipper Antoine Dupont returning in full glory after helping France to Olympic rugby sevens gold in the Paris Games last summer, raced out to a 28-0 half-time lead in a totally dominant display at the Stade de France.

"A big team performance today, incredible to play in this stadium, our fans are outstanding," man-of-the-match Alldritt told ITV.

"The key was to play as a team, we've got a lot of individual really good players, and we wanted to play as a team.

"I think we did well, we got forwards and backs tries.

"We are happy with the win tonight, but we only did 20% of the job, we've got four more games to go."

Alldritt did not rush to talk of Grand Slams, saying: "We've only done 20 percent of our work, there are four matches to come. We'll continue to work hard so as not to finish second again, by a point or on points difference, like previous years.

"We're thirsty for victory, and it's the same thing for Ireland and also England."

Dupont notched up three try assists as wingers Theo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey both crossed for two tries, while Julien Marchand, Emilien Gailleton and Alldritt also scored, Thomas Ramos kicking four conversions in the nilling.

"The Championship is long, it was important to start well today," said Dupont.

- More woe for Gatland -

The defeat marked Wales' 13th in a row, heaping yet more pressure on coach Warren Gatland, for whom the game was his 150th in charge.

"I think we started off alright, we tried to play some rugby, probably on a couple of plays overplayed a little bit," Gatland told S4C.

"They're a good side and it's just making sure we get that balance.

"We've just got to make sure we get back on the horse and look forward to preparing for next week."

Wales captain Jac Morgan added: "We worked very hard as a team but if you make mistakes against a team like France, they're going to punish you.

"We have to stay tight as a group to keep improving and try to make fewer mistakes. We're gutted with the result."

Morgan said Wales knew "how dangerous France could be, they capitalise on your mistakes".

"In attack we weren't quite clinical enough. There was a lot of good there, a lot of promise, we need to stay tight as a group now.

"We'll take it week on week, we want to keep on getting better and improving. We've got a lot of talent and a lot of passion."

France now take on England in Twickenham while Wales have a tricky away trip to Rome to face Italy.

(M.Scott--TAG)