Wales seemed to have buried itself when Warburton picked up France winger Vincent Clerc and dropped him dangerously in the 18th minute, while leading 3-0. Irish referee Alain Rolland sent off the skipper immediately, and just as quickly the muted crowd’s sympathies swung to Wales.
“I feel hollow,” Wales coach Warren Gatland said. “Our destiny for having a chance of making the final was taken from us with the red card.”
Gatland believed Rolland was too quick and should have consulted the touch judges, at least. He thought the tackle was worthy of a yellow card at best. His counterpart, Marc Lievremont, believed the red card was deserved.
Warburton, the youngest ever skipper in a World Cup semifinal, said he was “gutted” and there was no ill-feeling in the tackle on Clerc.
Gatland praised the courage of his players, who gave the 58,629 in attendance plenty of reasons to cheer at Eden Park with a terrific defense that forced 11 handling errors, held in the scrums and, more importantly, stayed in touch with France on the scoreboard.
“The 14 players ran themselves into the ground, I can’t ask any more,” Gatland said.
Wales even scored the only try to scrumhalf Mike Phillips, whose decisive score also ended Ireland hopes in the quarterfinals. But two chances to grab the lead were barely missed, when replacement flyhalf Stephen Jones’ conversion glanced off the left post, and fullback Leigh Halfpenny’s penalty attempt from halfway fell under the crossbar.
Wales would rue its off-day with the boot. After James Hook landed his first penalty, he, Jones and Halfpenny would combine to miss six more kicks, including two ugly dropped goal attempts.
By contrast, flyhalf Morgan Parra knocked over all three of his penalty chances to scrape France into a showdown next week with the winner of Sunday’s semifinal between New Zealand and Australia.
“We didn’t play so well,” France captain Thierry Dusautoir admitted. “We played with our heart.”
The final will be France’s third, and by curious coincidence they’re at 12-year intervals: 1987, 1999 and 2011. The Tricolores hardly featured in both previous finals, however, with heavy losses to the All Blacks in the first and the Wallabies in the second.
“Let’s hope,” Gatland only half-quipped, “they play a bit more rugby than they did tonight.”
Lievremont understood.
“If we’re going to be world champions playing the same rugby then so be it,” he said. “We’ve come up short in a lot of ways in the last few months, except that we’re in the World Cup final. The least we can do is pay homage to this Welsh team who played with 14 players and showed extraordinary courage. We probably have a lucky star over us.”
France was content more often to play for territory and hope Wales made a mistake. Scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili and Parra constantly kicked for chasers, and France set out to contain Wales. The Tricolores made more than twice as many tackles as Wales, and played with only 40 percent of the ball and territory.
“I couldn’t care less if it wasn’t a great match,” Lievremont said. Or, “If we were lucky and the Welsh deserved it more than us, we’re in the final and that’s all that counts.”
The conditions helped France. A drizzle began 20 minutes before the match and ended at kickoff to give the grass a slick cover.
A Hook crosskick was caught on the left wing by big George North, and France midfielder Maxime Mermoz was penalized at the bottom of a ruck for being offside in the eighth minute. Hook landed the goal from 28 meters.
Wales tighthead prop Adam Jones walked off with a right knee injury and was replaced by Paul James, and the Welsh scrum still earned a penalty when France was whistled for collapsing. But Hook missed the chance from 40 meters.
The turning point arrived in the 18th when Dusautoir won a lineout, and Clerc went on an angled run from his wing, only to be picked up and dangerously dumped on his back by Warburton, who was immediately red-carded. Gatland said the decision was so quick, he was still discussing the incident with his assistants when they realized their best player was already off the field.
Midfielder Jamie Roberts joined the side of the scrum, but Wales was strangely penalized for collapsing after its own put-in. Parra, despite resounding boos, had no problem equalizing from an angled 25 meters.
Hook missed a shot from 45 meters, then Roberts broke into France turf, and Hook punted to the right corner, but Alexis Palisson beat opposite Shane Williams to the ball.
Wales No. 8 Toby Faletau played ruck ball on the ground to concede the penalty which Parra nailed from 35 meters to give France the 6-3 lead it took into halftime.
Soon after the restart, France replaced hooker William Servat and Jean-Baptiste Poux in the front row but still couldn’t make an impression, while the ineffectual Hook was replaced by Jones, who extended his Wales caps record to 103.
In the 50th minute, France got a rolling maul going off a lineout and James was penalized for collapsing it on his 22. Parra made the shot for 9-3.
Nine minutes later, Phillips struck out of the blue, darting down the blindside through an attempted tackle by Pascal Pape and scooting over. But Jones missed the conversion, then duffed a dropped goal.
Mas gave away a penalty in a ruck in the 76th and thought he’d blown it for France, but Halfpenny didn’t quite have the distance into the breeze. Wales rolled the dice one last time with 27 phases but dropped the ball and let off France.
