Marc Lièvremont, the France coach, has accused his team of “betraying the shirt” and is ready to wield the axe for Saturday’s match against Wales in Paris.
Lièvremont reacted to his team’s shock defeat in Rome by launching a blistering verbal attack on his players. “Maybe they were too much in the comfort zone,” he said. “Do I feel responsible for that? No, they betrayed us, they have betrayed me and they have betrayed the French national team shirt.
“What is for sure is that certain players have worn the French shirt for the last time. In terms of the tactics deployed, it defied belief. I did not recognise anything in their performance that we had worked on.
“Do you really think that I told them to play as they did against Italy? I was ashamed. This match was an hallucination. I do not want to clear myself from the blame, but they invented things on the pitch. They are lacking in courage.”
Anybody but a France supporter could not fail to have been moved by the scenes that greeted the final whistle at the Stadio Flaminio on Saturday.
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This was Italy’s breakthrough moment, their first victory over France in the Six Nations Championship and their first win against a team other than Scotland or Wales in the competition. As the tension turned to relief, tears of joy flowed among the long-suffering players and supporters in Rome.
“We have been dreaming of this moment,” Sergio Parisse, the Italy captain, said. “To win against France at home is a dream come true.”
Since they joined the tournament in 2000, Italy had won only seven out of 58 previous games. They conceded two tries, by Vincent Clerc and Morgan Parra, but scored through Andrea Masi, the full back, while five penalties from Mirco Bergamasco and some dogged defence saw them home.
So often on home soil they have competed gamely for an hour and fallen away. This time they stayed strong and reaped the reward. “I told my players to keep attacking and they did just that,” Nick Mallett, the Italy coach, said.
Scorers: Italy: Try: Masi (59min). Conversion: Bergamasco. Penalty goals: Bergamasco 5 (2, 24, 64, 71, 76).
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France: Tries: Clerc (14), Parra (51). Conversion: Parra. Penalty goals: Parra 3 (21, 46, 68).
Scoring sequence (Italy first); 3-0, 3-5, 3-8, 6-8 (half-time), 6-11, 6-18, 13-18, 16-18, 16-21, 19-21, 22-21.
Italy: A Masi; T Benvenuti, G Canale, G Garcia, M Bergamasco; L Orquera (rep: K Burton, 58), F Semenzato; A Lo Cicero (rep: S Perugini, 48), C Festuccia (rep: L Ghiraldini, 48), M Castrogiovanni, S Dellape (rep: Q Geldenhuys, 52), C del Fava, A Zanni, R Barbieri (rep: P Derbyshire, 58), S Parisse.
France: F Médard; Y Huget, A Rougerie, Y Jauzion (rep: D Traille, 71), V Clerc; F Trinh-Duc, M Parra; S Marconnet, W Servat (rep: G Guirado, 61), N Mas (rep: L Ducalcon, 41), J Pierre, L Nallet (rep: J Thion, 57), T Dusautoir, J Bonnaire, S Chabal (rep: I Harinordoquy, 57).
Referee: B Lawrence (NZ).
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Attendance: 32,000.