France has finished their World Cup campaign on a sad note, after a demoralising 42-10 defeat to Samoa has seen them finish in last place of the 2008 tournament.

Samoa started the carnage in the sixth minute when Bulldogs winger Matt Utai scored down the left flank, and extended the margin to eight soon after when Francis Meli scored in the opposite corner.

It was 12-0 after 24 minutes when Ben Teo decided to run the ball on the last tackle, and when Ben Roberts kicked his first conversion it was 14-0 and the French resistance was starting to look shaky. 

Samoan centre George Carmont extended the lead to 18-0 after Tony Puletua managed to keep the ball in play with a trademark overhead pass, and Misi Taulapapa scored just before the break to see France down 24-0 at the half way mark.

The Samoan’s picked things up where they left off after the break with Ben Teo getting his second try of the match after a short ball from halfback Albert Talipeau, with Roberts’s conversion making it 30-0 with 30 minutes remaining.  

France had a chance to post some points after finally getting some field position in the Samoan attacking end, but some solid defence from the island nation kept the French at bay and still searching for their opening points.

A mistake from French halfback Thomas Bosc gave Samoa another gift four pointer with 20 minutes remaining, as George Carmont sent Ben Roberts away to make it 36-0 after another Roberts sideline conversion.

It was up to French Captain Jerome Guisset to open France’s account when he collected a neat short pass from hooker Christophe Moly, with a Thomas Bosc conversion making it 36-6.

Sebastian Planas gave the French back some pride with his side’s second try in the left hand corner, and with just over 11 minutes remaining France were looking for more points at 36-10.

Bosc almost made it another French try after following up a kick, but video referee Steven Clark ruled No Try and Samoa finished the game off with a late try to Tony Puletua.

French Coach John Monie said although he was disappointed with the teams position in the final standings he was happy with their effort, but conceded that his team was probably still off the pace at this level of competition.

“We were probably like all the teams in the second or third pool,” Monie said. “We wanted to win our pool and we probably got what we deserved in the second game when we played a Fijian side that was primed up and ready to go.

“I thought we had a lot of points scored on us in that game and in this game it’s the first time I’ve ever coached a team where we only got in their 20 metre zone once in the first half and that’s ridiculous stuff. We expected to do much better than that.”

Source: Ben Pollack