Nothing unlucky about Wales's 13th defeat in a row
PARIS : Wales knew they were facing a huge challenge in Paris on Friday but their 13th successive defeat was a humbling one as France's 43-0 victory marked the visitors' first zero in the competition since losing 51-0 to the French in 1998 when it was still the Five Nations.
Their seventh successive defeat to France was as one-sided as the result suggests, with Wales's inexperienced team never looking remotely close to scoring. Warren Gatland's side were punished again and again for their indiscipline as they conceded 12 penalties and lost two men to the sin-bin.
"It was a tough night, we knew how dangerous France could be but our discipline probably let us down and France capitalised on it," said captain Jac Morgan after his team failed to score in an international match for the first time since 2007.
"We weren't accurate enough or clinical enough but there was a lot of good there, a lot of promise, we have to stay tight as a group.
"We want to keep getting better and improving. We have a lot of talent and we will keep on working and come through."
Wales actually started quite brightly but once brilliant French scrumhalf Antoine Dupont took hold of the game it was one-way traffic as France ran in seven tries, first through their wingers and in the second half via their powerful forwards.
"We tried to play some rugby, probably on a couple of plays overplayed a little bit," said coach Gatland.
"I thought we scrummaged well and the forwards worked really hard, in terms of trying to get front-foot ball. But there's no excuses about the result. I thought we created a couple of opportunities and we didn't finish them.
"Probably the penalty call wasn't in our favour, I thought there were a couple of tough calls. We've just got to make sure we get back on the horse and look forward to preparing for next week."
That is the huge match away to Italy, where another defeat could leave Wales in dire danger of a second successive Six Nations without a win.
Former Wales flyhalf-turned-pundit Dan Biggar told ITV: "For me, this game next week is the biggest match in Welsh rugby for the last 15-20 years. It's a huge match. I'm not saying that light-heartedly."
