Peter Jackson’s comment on France: This will drive Dr Mias back onto the bottle

In reaffirming their status as serious title contenders, Wales plunged France into such a state of despair that their most revered captain could be forgiven for nursing a hangover.
Dr Lucien Mias once famously drank half a bottle of brandy the night before leading his country to one of their most celebrated victories, the first one over the Springboks in South Africa more than half a century ago. He would have been sorely tempted last night to pour himself another half bottle.
Wales beating the French four times in a row had not been done since the late Fifties, a run which the young Mias helped stop at Cardiff Arms Park in March 1958, less than six months before much the same team won that ferocious Test series in Johannesburg. Stopping the current rot is an entirely different matter.
Not for the first time, the grand old warrior now in his 85th year will have felt like weeping over what has become of La Belle France. The supreme stylists of yesteryear have replaced the rapier of invention with the bludgeon of brute force – all Roundheads and no Cavaliers.
Wales came armed with a rock-solid scrum, a line-out restored to such complete working order that not a single throw was lost and a goalkicker who never looked like missing. They never looked as though they were going to lose.
They did a thoroughly efficient job and it is a damning indictment of France under Philippe Saint-Andre that nothing more was required.
This is not intended in any way to denigrate a Welsh team who will fancy their chances against Ireland in Cardiff in the next round but France leave the distinct impression that it doesn't take anything extraordinary to beat them these days.
The old cliché about nobody knowing which France will turn up should never be used again.  Sadly, everyone knows only too well what France team will turn up.
For a country whose backs used to score tries for fun, they now struggle to score one a game. The wooden spoon two years ago heaped embarrassment on top of the misery of having a mere six tries to show for their five matches that season.
Now, with three games gone, they are down to two.  At least they scored one against Wales, at long last. At the risk of driving Dr Mias towards another swig from the brandy bottle, Brice Dulin's corner try was the first by a French player against Wales since Vincent Clerc in the same stadium on March 19, 2011 – a total playing time of five-and-a-half hours.
By then Wales were far enough ahead to absorb the blow and carry on winning. Four minutes earlier Danny Lydiate, noted for many qualities but not his sleight of hand, had conjured up the pass which sent Dan Biggar on a diagonal run to the corner for his first Test try.
Leigh Halfpenny may have missed the touchline conversion but he nailed five penalties from five attempts.  France too, had five penalty shots at goal but failed with all but the first and last, Camille Lopez missing twice, Morgan Parra once.
Tactically, they kept playing into Welsh hands. France persisted with the short re-start which Sam Warburton and his men seized with gleeful acrobatics.  Halfpenny's deadly marksmanship ensured a whole series of French re-starts and therefore a bountiful source of possession.
Lopez tried diagonal kicks to either wing and once he aimed a chip into the midst of four Welsh jerseys without a blue one in sight.
In a city where revolutionaries invented the barricade during the 19th century, Wales were never had to man theirs in the face of a sustained onslaught as they had been forced to during the final minutes at Murrayfield 13 days earlier.
That the annual win over France came without any such discomfort is a suitable tribute to the Welsh pack. By the end they had seen off two French front rows – the starting one which lasted 50 minutes before being replaced for the last half hour by a trio which included Vincent Debaty.
His introduction at a similar stage during the last round in Dublin caused the Irish scrum no end of anxiety. Wales had no such problem, a fitting tribute to the immovable Samson Lee and never can a tighthead have been so aptly named.
For a change the match came and went without any real alarms. Even George North's dad, David, stayed in his seat rather than repeat his run onto the pitch two years ago after his boy had scored the only try of the game.
In the best of all Welsh worlds, he would have had another to mark his record as the youngest player to reach half a century of Tests, at the ripe old age of 22.
His only real chance, seven minutes before half-time, vanished when Dulin – almost five stone lighter and six inches shorter – proved the old adage about the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Successive away wins will have ensured a decent night out in Paris last night, as organised by their in-house Parisian, Jamie Roberts.
By the time they got downtown to start celebrating, Lucien Mias will quite possibly have finished drowned his sorrows.