FRANCE underlined their status as England’s only challengers in the TikTok Women’s Six Nations with a 33-5 win away to Wales in Cardiff.
Les Bleues needed just 29 minutes to notch the bonus-point score, a fortnight after England had handed Wales their first defeat of the campaign, 58-5 at Kingsholm.
ReutersFrance’s Laure Sansus scores a try[/caption]
The two teams meet in Round 5 of the tournament, with the Grand Slam likely to be on the line provided England see off Ireland at home on Sunday.
For Wales, this defeat came after another slow start, an issue skipper Siwan Lillicrap knows they have to resolve.
She said: “We just need to start better. It was so important that we finished on a high.
“We’ve got to look at ourselves and why we start a little bit slow. If we can be an 80-minute team, we will compete with great sides like France.”
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In the end, France ran in five tries, with scrum-half Laure Sansus pulling the strings, scoring two and creating another.
She broke the deadlock after just eight minutes going under the posts after a neat offload from half-back partner Jessy Trémoulière.
Caroline Boujard, who scored a 15-minute hat-trick against Wales a year ago, was on the money from a Trémoulière cross-kick before Sansus combined with Chloé Jacquet to send the full-back in for the third.
The scrum-half then pounced on a loose ball from a scrum to make it 26-0 inside half an hour.
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Wales finished the half brightly, but could not find a way through and it was a similar story early in the second. France were more clinical, Trémoulière running in their fifth behind a dominant scrum.
As was the case away to Scotland, France were less impressive in the second half, and Wales had the final say with Sioned Harries crossing with time up.
But France did more than enough to go top of the table ahead of welcoming England to Bayonne in a potential Grand Slam decider next weekend.
The TikTok Women’s Six Nations is more accessible than ever before. To find out how you can watch the Women’s Championship visit: womens.sixnationsrugby.com/tv/
France celebrate their win over WalesRex Read More