France gun down Japan by 47-21 in Rugby World Cup pool match
France thumped Japan by a large margin of 47-21 in its first game of the Rugby World Cup 2011, in North Harbour Stadium, North Shore City, played on September 10. France scored six tries in the match to start the tournament with a promising victory as Dimitri
Yachvili and Clerc were the major contributors for France. James Arlidge was the man who scored all 21 points for Japan but could not save his side from a humiliating defeat.
France took no risk for their opening match of Rugby World Cup and formed a very strong side to compete against the Asian champs, Japan. They heavily depended on experience which really worked for them to start the journey in a positive way. They made a
few changes in their starting lines as Estebanez and Aurélien Rougerie were deployed in the midfield for this match.
Meanwhile, Japan made huge shuffles in their standing orders despite victory in their last warm-up match against the United States. John Kirwan, their head coach made 11 changes in his side to gain the maximum advantage in the opening game.
The North Harbour Stadium witnessed an electric start by the French as they forced the Japanese on their back foot from the first minute of the match. Julien Pierre had not taken too much time to steal the first try for France. Dimitri Yachvili made the
score 7-0 with a conversion goal and made things easy for France. Trinh-Duc made a 50 meter run to score the second five-pointer for France in the 12th minute of the match.
Dimitri Yachvili scored on couple of more penalty goals before the end of interval. Vincent Clerc ended the first-half in great fashion for France as he scored his first try during the 33rd minute of the match. France led the match by 25-11 at
the break with the help of three tries.
Meanwhile, James Arlidge scored 11 individual points for Japan before the break. James Arlidge was lacking the proper support from his team-mates which he never got before the interval.
The second part of the game was started in a comparatively sluggish manner by the both sides. Loose passes, foul tackling and lack of discipline was seen by the sides. James Arlidge remained successful in puting some pressure on the attacking French side
and added 10 more points to the grand total of Japan. France added 17 more points during the second half and secured the first victory of the tournament with lofty margin of 47-21.
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