Peter Jackson verdict on France – Much more of this and Guy Noves will feel his age

Hugo BonnevalWhen last required the services of Guy Noves, the Fifth Republic as headed by Charles de Gaulle had barely completed its second decade.
Four other Presidents have followed The General out of the Elysee Palace since a weekend when Gloria Gaynor topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with I Will Survive. France survived that day which was more than could be said of their left wing from .
The narrowest of home wins, against on February 17, 1979, ensured Noves a winning exit, not that he would have appreciated the sentiment. And so began the longest wait for a second chance in the history of the .
The youngster whom they discarded at 25 reappeared on Test duty yesterday for the first time the day after turning 62. He would have gone to bed with the mental exhaustion of a man who had aged ten years in one afternoon.
Another severe dose of that ageing process against next Saturday and the oldest Test coach will feel closer to 82 by the time he gets to at the mid-point of the Championship.
Those who gave him the job of rebuilding the nation's shattered state post- will hope they have unwittingly taken a leaf out of Napoleon's military manual about lucky generals. Noves used up so much luck yesterday that there may not be any left for the next skirmish.
All that can be said for France is that they sneaked the win. They would not have done that had Sergio Parisse ensured the due reward of a famous win instead of another demoralising hard-luck story.
Their colossus of a captain seized the opportunity to win it off his own boot in the third minute of stoppage time. If justice was to be done, the ball had to sail straight, only for Parisse to prove there is still one skill he has still to perfect.
Unlike Zinzan Brooke on the occasion of his 40-metre drop against during the semi-final, Parisse's shank came closer to threatening a team-mate than the posts.
Noves will no doubt console himself with the fact that his team outscored the Azzurri 3-2 on tries.   A closer inspection will remind him that the gods were smiling on his team from the opening quarter.
Virimi Vakatawa's feat in joining the elite to have scored from their first touch in the Test arena might not have survived video scrutiny, not just to measure whether Maxime Medard's pass had gone forward but whether the nifty Fijian wing had brushed the touchline in applying his side-stepping finish.
As soon as JP Doyle decided neither case required video referral, Noves must have sensed it was going to be his lucky day, that France would strut their stuff across the full width of the pitch.
Instead they failed so utterly to do anything of the kind. With his team unable to impose any semblance of control for long periods, Noves endured the grim experience of watching them send the Stade de France if not to sleep then into a sulking silence.
The match ought to have been a personal triumph for Carlo Canna. Italy's debut fly-half went through the card, his converted try on top of his early drop and penalty leaving France eight points adrift.
It would have been worse had Canna not missed two early shots at goal but then Sebastien Bezy missed three for France before the euro coin dropped and Jules Plisson showed how the job should be done. His match-winning goal from a fraction more than 50 metres rescued Noves.
He may have won his last international as a player by one point and his first as coach by two but the game did nothing to ease fears for a man who has been kept waiting too long.

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