{"id":389279,"date":"2025-09-01T13:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T13:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389279\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T13:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T13:15:17","slug":"why-heavy-victory-for-les-bleues-v-brazil-was-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389279\/","title":{"rendered":"Why heavy victory for Les Bleues v Brazil was important"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

France<\/a> expected that. No, France<\/a> needed that. After a determined, stern-faced, no-frills win over Italy in their Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> opener, Les Bleues<\/a> had to blast away the attacking cobwebs with a smile against Pool D tournament debutants Brazil.<\/p>\n

Bianca Silva\u2019s 64th-minute try for As Yaras, rightly, drew the loudest cheer from a full-house in Exeter. Not only was it their first-ever try at their first-ever Rugby World Cup<\/a>, it was the glorious long-range conclusion of a superb break down the wing from the second-half replacement following a stolen lineout. A highlight-reel highlight.<\/p>\n

But the rest was all about France, as they made sure of quarter-final qualification in some style.<\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

View Top 50<\/a><\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis match against Brazil is an opportunity to show a different side, to improve, and to fine-tune the many details that didn\u2019t necessarily work against Italy,\u201d captain Marine M\u00e9nager had said in the lead-up to the match.<\/p>\n

The numbers say a lot: 14 tries, 74 percent territory, 51 percent possession, 60 defenders beaten, 147 runs, 24 offloads, more than 1,000m of ball carries, a 53-0 scoreline at half-time, rising to 84-5 at the final whistle \u2013 France\u2019s second highest points tally, after their 99-0 win over Japan in 1994.<\/p>\n

\"Team Match Summary \"Team <\/p>\n

But the manner of victory says more. Driven by fizzing livewire Pauline Bourdon<\/a> Sansus, named player of the match on her return to the starting line-up after a two-match ban, France launched attack after attack from \u2013 just about \u2013 everywhere.<\/p>\n

They dared and they won, from Emilie Boulard\u2019s fifth-minute touchdown that got the scoreboard moving, the first of her two scores on Sunday afternoon; through 19-year-old backrow Marie Morland\u2019s touchdown on debut two minutes later, and Bourdon Sansus\u2019s own try five minutes later; through the additional braces for M\u00e9nager, Seraphine Okemba<\/a>, and Kelly Arbey<\/a>, who had the final try-scoring word 11 minutes from time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a blast,\u201d M\u00e9nager said afterwards, as the sounds of the two sides partying together drifted through the press room. \u201cWe respected this Brazilian team. We tried to play fair and we got the result. Scoring more than 80 points in a World Cup<\/a> match is a great performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morland \u2013 in for the injured Teani Feleu<\/a> \u2013 made such an impact that it was easy to forget this was her first international cap. It wasn\u2019t just her early try, though that helped. She offloaded out of the tackle, made herself available in attack and defence, and just looked comfortable on and off the ball.<\/p>\n

It was clear that a coaches\u2019 gauntlet had been laid down prior to the match. So it proved. Satisfied coach Ga\u00eblle Mignot said afterwards: \u201cWe set ourselves a high bar, to score every time we entered the \u2018red zone\u2019. The first half was very accomplished, very successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have improvements to make \u2013 there were moments where we lost consistency. It was important to be focused from A to Z, to play a full match. We had to go through that, if we want to be ambitious.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win set up a Pool D decider against South Africa next Sunday in Northampton, after the Springbok Women beat Italy 29-24 in York<\/a> to lead Les Bleues by a single bonus point with one last group stage match to go. The winners go into the last eight at the top of Pool D. The losers \u2013 most likely \u2013 face New Zealand.<\/p>\n

In the media, South Africa\u2019s first win over Italy, and first-time qualification for the quarter-finals, was reported as a shock. But the France camp weren\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a scenario we had in mind before even starting this World Cup<\/a>,\u201d M\u00e9nager said. \u201cWe met them at [France training camp] Marcoussis during training for the Six Nations<\/a> Tournament. They\u2019re very strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told ourselves [then] that, potentially, we might have a group final to play in this last match \u2013 and that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of excitement because it\u2019s going to be a big match. It\u2019s going to be tough. We\u2019re going to have to be ready. So, we\u2019re going to prepare very, very hard. We\u2019re going to recover well and quickly move on to next weekend\u2019s match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis World Cup<\/a> isn\u2019t easy. We started with Italy, a match that was far from a foregone conclusion. Against Brazil, we have had a chance to free ourselves a little more in our game and gain confidence. And we have a big, big match with a team completely different from the other two four our last group match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can think of no better way to prepare for a quarter-final.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mignot echoed her captain\u2019s sentiment: \u201c[South Africa\u2019s] win against Italy doesn\u2019t surprise me \u2013 we\u2019ve been saying for a long time that they\u2019re improving,\u201d she said, also looking back to the Six Nations\u2019 training between the two national sides.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s progress was, she said, proof that the women\u2019s game is in ever-improving shape. \u201cWe also saw a big match between the United States and Australia. We were told from the outset that the top two in each group were decided \u2013 that\u2019s not the case and it shows the good health of women\u2019s rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France expected that. No, France needed that. After a determined, stern-faced, no-frills win over Italy in their Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-389279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115129229776040761","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}