PARIS, 22 February 2004 — France coach Bernard Laporte was fuming yesterday after Christophe Dominici produced one of the all-time great Six Nations blunders during his side’s 25-0 victory over Italy.
France were leading 13-0 after 52 minutes and running out of ideas when Dominici burst through and crossed the tryline unopposed. However, as he attempted to touch down stylishly holding the ball in one hand, the 37-cap winger knocked it free with his knee.
“We told him that what he did is totally unacceptable at international level,” Laporte said. “It’s a lack of respect for the team, for all the work that has been done during the week of training and for himself. It’s a professional fault really but you can not ban a player for life because of a mistake, however stupid it was.”
The mistake summed up much of France’s work yesterday as they dominated in terms of possession and territory but dropped too many passes and took a series of wrong options.
“We did well on the set pieces and we had a lot of possession,” said the coach. “I think that you could say that the ball was ours for 110 minutes but at the end of the day we didn’t score enough points because we made too many errors on the last pass, a few meters from the line and even behind the line.
“I’m particularly satisfied by our forwards’ performance. The halfbacks also had a very good game. It was (flyhalf Julien) Peyrelongue’s first international and (scrumhalf Jean-Baptiste) Elissalde’s second full cap. I think both had a very clean game. I know what we’ll have to do before our next match against Wales — become more efficient.”
Italy coach John Kirwan was pleased with the defense of his side. “The most important thing was the courage of our players,” he said. Italy had a daunting start to the tournament, facing England then France, but they have Scotland in Rome next and it is the fixture Kirwan has always had his eye on.
