Warren Gatland predicted this would be Wales’s toughest game of the Six Nations. He claimed that if Wales beat France in Paris they would have a great chance of winning the championship. He is right. Having pulled off the biggest comeback in Championship history with their extraordinary 24-19 victory, Wales swan off to the Riviera for a few days, as they prepare for their assignment in Rome next Saturday, which they will surely win.
That would put them on two wins from two, both of them away. Momentum would be theirs as they return to Cardiff in round three to take on England. The international game plays to a fractured rhythm, a window here, a window there, but Wales’s windows are united by a winning streak poised to break records.
Friday night’s win in Paris, however outlandish, was Wales’s 10th in a row, a record for this millennium. If they beat Italy they would equal the 11 consecutive wins of the early 20th century that remains Wales’s record.
George North seals superb Wales comeback after France throw it away
Which adds a certain spice, as if spice were needed, to that visit of England. On Friday night, Gatland boldly described his team as “a side that have forgotten how to lose”, which is certainly a useful mental blank to develop. Everybody emerged from this encounter bewildered.
French eyes after the match were glazed over, as they tried to process what had happened, Jacques Brunel and Guilhem Guirado, coach and captain, as much as Yoann Huget and Sébastien Vahaamahina, perpetrators of the most outrageous of the many howlers France committed in their collective suicide pact of the second half.
In the various guises of this oldest championship in the world, never has a side surrendered a 16-point lead. France are not only struggling to remember how to win, they cannot rid their heads of the wildest, most convoluted devices by which to gift the game to the opposition. This theme is endemic to their history in rugby, but these new ways they contrive not to win seem the work of an ever more diabolical genius. In this fixture two years ago, they found a way to win, but how they were even vaguely within Wales’s sights, let alone trailing to them as the game entered its infamous 20 minutes of overtime, is anyone’s guess.
Quick guide
Other Five and Six Nations comebacks to remember
Ireland 21-26 France (21 Jan 1989) France recovered from 15-0 down after 37 minutes to beat Ireland. This was the previous record comeback-win until Wales’s victory in Paris on 1 Feb 2019.
Wales 31-24 Scotland (13 Feb 2010) Scotland led by 10 points with two minutes to play but Scotland were reduced to 13 men and Shane Williams went into overdrive to inspire a famous win in a frantic finale.
France 18-24 Wales (26 Feb 2005) Another one for France to forget against the Welsh. The hosts led 15-6 at the break but a two-try blitz by Martyn Williams early in the second half got the Welsh in front – and kept them there.