France 46 Italy 20:Irish hopes of snatching the Six Nations championship from France's grasp faded further today after Les Bleus put 50 points between themselves and Declan Kidney's side with a resounding win over Italy at the Stade de France.
Even if England do the unthinkable and upset the odds in Paris next week, Ireland will have to rack up the points against Scotland at Croke Park to have any hope of retaining their title.
Had France not allowed their opponents back into the game in the final 20 minutes the task would have been even more unlikely but late tries from replacements Carlo Del Fava and Pablo Canavosio put some respectability on the scoreline, as did conversions from Mirco Bergamasco.
They were mere consolations for Italy, however, after centre David Marty, preferred in the starting line-up to Mathieu Bastareaud, scored two tries in eight minutes when Italy's Gonzalo Garcia was in the sin-bin.
Winger Marc Andreu and flanker Alexandre Lapandry both scored their first tries for their country, with others coming from Imanol Harinordoquy and Yannick Jauzion, while Morgan Parra kicked seven goals from nine attempts to give the French a 46-6 lead.
The French pack quickly asserted their authority to give half-backs Francois Trinh-Duc and Parra, making a seventh consecutive start together, the platform to unleash their dangerous three-quarters, while Clement Poitrenaud added an extra cutting edge from full-back.
It was Parra who created the game’s first try, jinking his way through the Italian defence to get Harinordoquy over and he kicked the first of two penalties to make it 10-0.
The Italians’ cause was made all the more difficult on 17 minutes when centre Garcia, fresh from a spell in blood bin, was sent to the sin bin for an obstruction of Andreu, who has been released on an exciting touchline dash by Poitrenaud.
France immediately made the extra man count as Marty coasted through a gap in the stretched Azzurri defence to score his side’s second try, with Parra extending their lead to 17-0 with the conversion.
Poitrenaud demonstrated his attacking flair again on 27 minutes to help get Harinordoquy into space and he sent Marty over for his second try while the Italians were still down to 14 men.
The visitors could do little right and when they managed to breach the French defence second rower Marco Bortolami was recalled for a forward pass by Garcia.
Coach Nick Mallett responded to the mounting crisis by withdrawing scrum-half Tito Tebaldi in favour of the more experienced Canavosio and Italy finally got points on the board just before the break when Mirco Bergamasco landed a 40-metre penalty.
Parra lost his 100 per cent record when he failed to convert Marty’s second try but he made amends with a long-range penalty two minutes into the second half.
Marty then thought he was on for a hat-trick after racing onto Parra’s kick but he was ruled offside and instead Bergamasco pulled three points back with the resulting penalty.
That briefly encouraged the visitors and a neat pass out of the tackle by number eight Alessandro Zanni released Canavosio into space but Julien Bonnaire got back to preserve the French tryline.
If the Azzurri lacked a cutting edge, France were razor sharp and they quickly added to their try tally.
Andreu came in off his wing to produce a scything run that took him all the way to the line, and then produced the break that got Jauzion romping over.
Parra was off target for the second time with a long-range penalty but he was back in the groove on 65 minutes to convert a try by Lapandry, who produced a strong finish to a break from fellow replacement Julien Malzieu.
The Italians looked a dispirited lot as they gathered under the posts waiting for the conversion but they produced a spirited two-try rally to take some of the gloss off the French triumph.