France beaten in passionless Test

MELBOURNE, Australia -- World and Tri-Nations champions Australia scored two first-half tries to beat Six Nations champions France 29-17 here on Saturday in a passionless rugby Test match.

Fullback Chris Latham finished a flowing backline move in the left hand corner in the 13th minute and fly-half Stephen Larkham and outside centre Matt Burke worked a decoy move that opened up a slack French defence for a second try for Larkham after 36 minutes.

Those were the only well-worked moves in a stop-start match that saw the French, who looked jaded following their 30-hour flight from Buenos Aires earlier in the week, make too many errors to ever be in contention.

Burke converted both tries and also kicked five penalties for a personal tally of 19 points.

France replied with a 73rd minute try from replacement prop Jean-Baptiste Poux -- his first Test try -- and four penalties, three from fly-half Francois Gelez and one from inside centre Damien Traille.

Australia led 23-9 at half-time.

France were very rarely in the match. Although their defence prevented another three Australian tries in the second half, they gave away too many penalties, had a disastrous time in the lineouts and poor handling let them down when they did mount an attack.

Inside centre Daniel Herbert sold a great dummy before being hauled down, and twice left wing Stirling Mortlock threatened.

The first time a great tackle by openside flanker Olivier Magne stopped him and then when he was held up on the line replacement hooker Brendan Cannon was penalised for not releasing.

"Considering the penalties we gave away and our lineouts we can't be too unhappy," said France captain Fabien Pelous.

"We just didn't have possession and were fighting a rearguard action all the time."

Wallaby captain George Gregan said he was pleased with some aspects of their backline moves.

"We had a focus and one aspect was to get the ball wide but we still have a lot of work to do," said the scrum-half.

France's decision to use the game as a trial for next year's World Cup made a mockery of what was billed as a battle between the best sides in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Coach Bernard Laporte made eight changes to his Six Nations Grand Slam championship side following last week's stunning defeat in Argentina which ended their eight match winning run.

In all, only eight players remain from the side that thrashed Ireland 44-5 in April to clinch the Six Nations title.

Australia, who won the 1999 World Cup and have won the Tri Nations title contested by New Zealand and South Africa for the last two years, were strengthened by the return of Larkham who missed their 27-23 win over the New Zealand Maori in Perth last Saturday.

* The Wallabies could be missing two of their most influential forwards for the second match of their two-Test series with France next Saturday.

Hooker Jeremy Paul will definitely miss the match after being ruled out for two to four weeks with rib cartilage damage.

He may be joined on the sidelines by teammate Toutai Kefu who broke a bone in his left hand.

Paul was hurt during a scrum late in the first half of the match. -- Sapa-AFP