France comprehensively outmuscled world champion South Africa 20-13 to continue its 12-year home run of victories over the recently crowned Tri-Nations winner. The French win at the Municipal Stadium here was based on a steely performance by the forwards, notably in the scrum and at the breakdown, that will have their Six Nations opponents scrabbling for their video analysis. The Springboks repeatedly paid the price for ill-discipline, Morne Steyn and Ryan Kankowski both sin-binned as referee Wayne Barnes cracked down on collapsing the rolling maul and rucks. Julien Dupuy kicked four penalites from six, and Morgan Parra one, with winger Vincent Clerc bagging a try for the home side while Morne Steyn hit a penalty and drop-goal as well as converting an opportunist's try by captain John Smit. The French matched the physicality offered by the Springboks in the opening quarter, young centre pairing Yann David and Maxime Mermoz causing the visiting midfield some problems, with flanker Imanol Harinordoquy and hooker William Servat prominent around the field. But Dupuy and Damien Traille both failed to find their range with box kicks into a strong wind, to grant a flustered-looking Bok side some relief. Wales hangs on for win Wales flirted with another upset defeat at the hands of Samoa before emerging 17-13 winner at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff Friday. Samoa, which upset the Welsh in the World Cups of 1991 and 1999, was playing it again for the first time in nine years and stayed in the game largely due to Wales' failure to make their dominance pay. Despite coming together only last week, the islanders finished on top and, but for missing an easy penalty attempt and misplacing a pass with the tryline in sight, they could have been celebrating another shock win over the Welsh. “It's as tough a test match as they come but I think we should be disappointed with the amount of mistakes,” Wales captain Ryan Jones told the BBC. “We've been offering so much but we haven't got that clinical edge that you need at this level. “I take my hat off to Samoa. They got together Sunday and they put a fantastic team performance together.” Wales coach Warren Gatland added: “We put ourselves under a bit of pressure and the finishing wasn't good enough.”
