A sensational finish to what had been an average game saw Wales get out of jail to avoid their first defeat to France of the 1990s. That they did was thanks to a remarkable introduction to international rugby league from a Salford forward who had begun the season playing rugby union.

With captain Patrick Entat outstanding throughout, France had dictated the early play. Wales had a lucky escape when Frison knocked on over the line, but it was Entat who registered the first try after 20 minutes, Torreilles converting for a 6-0 lead. Wales were making a littering of errors and continually ruined their attacking opportunities with dropped ball. They were fortunate not to go into the break further behind, Claude Sirvent failing to hold Fraisse's pass with the line beckoning.

But any team with Jonathan Davies has a chance, and the captain (fortunate to be able to continue after an injury in the first half) slowly orchestrated the Welsh revival. On 57 minutes hooker Torreilles was sinbinned and Davies broke the duck with the resulting penalty. He kicked two more, one a huge effort from the half way line before slotting home a drop goal from 40 yards to give Wales a 7-6 lead with eight minutes to go.

The French were stung into action and Jean Marc Garcia's cutting run split open the defence to score under the posts for what should have been the winning score.

With only four minutes left, Wales threw on the ex-WRU star Richard Webster for his first experience of international rugby league. From a controversial penalty Wales won possession deep into injury time and the resulting drive saw Webster stretch out of two tackles for the decisive score. Davies' held his nerve for the resulting conversion and Wales recorded their second consecutive one-point victory over France.

The excited celebrations from the Welsh crowd were maybe a little hollow following the mediocre performance the team had shown, but if they were to develop as a force in international rugby they would have to pull off results like this when not playing well.

Source: WalesRL.co.uk

Contributions: Shawn Dollin, Andrew Ferguson