Rugby: le XV de France féminin en demi-finale du Mondial après sa victoire contre l’Italie 39 à 3

France’s women’s XV qualified on Saturday for the semi-finals of the World Cup thanks to a clean victory over Italy (39-3), in Whangarei (New Zealand), making the difference in the second period.

Next Saturday at Eden Park in Auckland, Les Bleues will face the winner of the second quarter of the day between New Zealand, the reigning world champions, and Wales in the semi-finals.

Gaëlle Hermet’s teammates confirmed their ticket to the last four thanks to a much more successful second period than the first.

As is often the case between these two formations, the match took place in a tense climate given the stakes, each assessing the other.

Both the French and the Italian stuck to a false rhythm, for a meeting that took time to move from a slow and laborious tone to the more playful and rolling tone that the crowd had a right to expect from a Global quarter-final.

Only on the hour of the game the French were finally freed, after a penalty given by the referee of the meeting and that the tricolor of the three quarters let the horses, like septista Joanna Grisez, author of a hat-trick.

lrb/goes