Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie is “proud” of his team’s performance against France in their narrow loss in Paris last weekend.
The Australians held the lead with just minutes to go before France winger Damian Penaud scored a magnificent try in the corner to edge out the Wallabies 30-29 on the night.
Disappointing result
Rennie admitted his players were “gutted” after the game, but there were a lot of positives the Wallabies could take from a good performance against one of the world’s best teams.
“Our guys are gutted because they emptied out the tanks tonight,” Rennie said.
“We’re all pretty disappointed but look I’m really wrapped with the character and the attitude.
“No one really gave us a chance to come here to Paris and take on a French side that’s been very impressive over the last 15 months.
“We talked about playing without fear and competing hard and throwing everything at them and we did that for a big chunk of the game. Disappointing outcome but proud of (the) effort.”
The Test in Paris was an electric affair with both teams running with the ball and included a long-range team try from the Wallabies finished off by Lalakai Foketi.
Rennie says France is most dangerous on their free plays, where they have an advantage and can attack without any risk.
“Where France are dangerous is from penalty advantage of knock-on advantages and they’ll play a lot then. They’ve got great athletes in the backs and forwards who can hurt you,” Rennie said.
“They offloaded a hell of a lot more than us, I think the offloading count was like 16 to two. When they’ve got an advantage they’re prepared to throw the ball around.”
Wallabies skipper James Slipper admitted there were no surprises from the French side and was proud of how his side ran the hosts close.
France took their chance
Slipper also commended Les Bleus for taking their chances, particularly in the crucial final stages.
“They’re a French team, they’ve built up a fair bit of momentum over the last one and a half years so we knew what we were up against,” Slipper said.
“We knew we had to be playing really good rugby to be in with a shot tonight and I thought we did that.
“It came down to the wire just like last week and just like Ren (Dave Rennie) said, we came out second best tonight, but I was extremely proud of how we performed tonight, how we prepared during the week, and how we turned up tonight.
“They’re a good team. They took their final opportunity and won the game.”
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The Wallabies face Italy this weekend, followed by a Test against Ireland and finally Wales in the last game of their Autumn Nations Series.