BRISBANE, Australia – The second round of the newly launched Rugby Nations Championship delivered one of the tournament’s most dramatic turnarounds on Saturday, as back-to-back Six Nations title holders France roared back from a nine-point halftime deficit to secure a commanding 42-26 victory over host Australia at Suncorp Stadium.
The opening 40 minutes was a back-and-forth affair marked by disciplinary swings that shaped the scoreboard. Australia-born French forward Emmanuel Meafou, who left his home country to pursue a professional rugby career in France, set an early tone for Les Bleus, crossing for the opening try just three minutes after kickoff. France jumped out to an early lead, only for the Wallabies to respond six minutes later via a clever set-piece trick: hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa threw a lineout to scrumhalf Ryan Lonergan at the front of the pack, received a quick return pass, and finished the coordinated movement to level the score at 7-7.
France reclaimed the lead in the 18th minute, when playmaker Romain Ntamack delivered a perfectly weighted 30-meter grubber kick into the left corner. Winger Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang outpaced rookie Australian flyhalf Duncan Meredith to the ball to dot down, putting Les Bleus up 12-7. The momentum shifted sharply 10 minutes before halftime, when Meafou was issued a 10-minute yellow card for dangerous head-on-head contact with Australian backrower Rob Valentini. The one-man advantage opened up space for the Wallabies to capitalize, and flanker Fraser McReight scored two close-range tries before the break. McReight also produced a match-saving defensive play right before halftime, outrunning France’s Matthieu Jalibert in a sprint for a loose ball in the in-goal to snuff out a potential try. When the half-time whistle blew, the Wallabies held a 21-12 lead, putting the hosts on track for their first win in six consecutive test matches.
That trajectory shifted completely in the second half, however, as France turned on a clinical attacking performance that left the Wallabies unable to respond. The turning point began in the 49th minute, when France spread the ball wide to the unmarked Grandidier-Nkanang, who crossed for his second try. Three minutes later, Australian fullback Tom Wright was sent to the sin bin for a disciplinary infringement, and France wasted no time exploiting the extra space. Ntamack scored a spectacular solo try in the 52nd minute, breaking from 22 meters out on the short side, selling a dummy to a defender, fending off a tackle, and crashing over the line to put France back in the lead. Skipper Maxime Lucu slotted the conversion to extend the advantage.
In a blistering seven-minute scoring spree, France crossed for three tries to blow the game open. Tries from Florian Verhaeghe and Theo Attissogbe followed Ntamack’s score, capping a run of 30 unanswered second-half points for Les Bleus, who bounced back from a narrow 34-32 opening-round defeat to New Zealand. Australia managed a late consolation try in the 76th minute, but it did nothing to alter the final result.
Looking ahead, France will travel to Tokyo next week to face Japan in their third tournament match. For the Wallabies, who fell 33-31 to Ireland in the opening round and now face a second consecutive defeat, the team heads to Perth, Western Australia, for their next matchup against Italy, still chasing an end to their current six-test losing streak.