Welsh pain as France through to Rugby World Cup final

France is through to the final of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand after beating Wales 9-8 in a semi-final the French trainer described as the ugliest in the sport’s history. The French team will face the winners of tomorrow’s match between New Zealand and Australia.

Reuters/Mike Hutchings

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was quick to congratulate the players, expressing “immense joy” and ‘great pride” in a message read to them by Sports Minister and former judo champion David Douillet.

Douillet will attend the final on Sunday 23 October in Auckland’s Eden Park.

The French gained their narrow victory having played one man up for three-quarters of the match after Welsh captain Sam Warburton was sent off in the 18th minute for a tip tackle on Vincent Clerc.

“It was surely the ugliest semi-final in the history of world rugby,” commented French trainer Marc Lièvremont but he added that he “couldn’t care less if it wasn’t beautiful”.

The 60,000-plus Welsh fans who watched the match at Cardiff’s Millenium Stadium took a different view, outraged by the send-off and booing when France pulled into the lead.

Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones claimed that Irish referee Alain Rolland’s decision to send off Warburton “did wreck the game”, while conceding that “referees are human”.

Although rugby is seen as the principality’s national game, Wales has never made it to a World Cup final.

France, where the game is mainly popular in the south-west of the country, has played in two, in 1987 and 1999, but lost both – in both cases to one of the teams they must face in a week’s time.

In 1987 the French beat the Australians, who beat them in the 1999 final, while in 1999 they lost to New Zealand.