Wales overwhelm France to restore title hopes

Wales coach Warren Gatland was an unusually happy man on Friday after a try in each half earned a third successive win over France and put them back in the hunt to retain their Six Nations crown.

Wales triumphed 27-6 after Irish referee Alain Rolland, in his last test, had sent three players to the sin-bin in the second half, two of them from the French pack, as the visitors were well beaten at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

Gatland had warned his players he wouldn’t tolerate another performance like the one that led to a 26-3 defeat by Ireland in Dublin last time out.

And the New Zealander was delighted by the way Wales responded against a France side who had been eyeing a Grand Slam.

“I am often grumpy with these guys, but I am happy with that,” Gatland said. “They responded well, with a good performance and a fantastic result.

“We let ourselves down in Dublin and sometimes you need a watershed moment. We were smashed up front against Ireland, they took us apart and we had to have a good hard look at ourselves.”

French full back Brice Dulin admitted: "We didn’t get going at all in the first half and Wales didn’t give us any way back in.

“The Welsh learned a lot from their loss to the Irish and were a different side.