French frustration on a cool Parisian night will be shared in Watford this morning as Saracens confront the loss of their most luminous signing, Thomas Castaignede, for the rest of the season.
The full back has had long-term injuries before, but the ruptured Achilles tendon in his left ankle which he picked up during the pre-match warm-up will stop him from going anywhere on a rugby pitch for six months, and possibly longer.
The 25-year-old will not be the first or last player over the next five weeks to skip off for international duty, only to hobble back to his club on crutches; but this latest setback will be felt savagely by both player and Saracens, who now must wait until next season for Castaignede and their other star import, Tim Horan, to play in the same side.
Castaignede's agonised departure back down the tunnel barely half-an-hour before kick-off was certainly unlucky, and the 68,000 crowd witnessed another freakish event shortly after half-time when a penalty attempt from Richard Dourthe flew low over the bar, only to be ruled under by the two Scottish touch judges, Jim Fleming and Iain Ramage.
Last weekend, though, it was a French club, Stade Francais, who benefited from a Wasps forward deflecting a penalty kick over the crossbar, and Bernard Laporte, the French coach, rightly declined to agree with those who argued that his side had been visually mugged of their first win over the Wallabies since 1993.
"Maybe making excuses is part of the weakness of our rugby," he said pointedly, clearly wary of false bravado with a brace of Tests against New Zealand looming in the next fortnight.
It was an inconclusive evening. France scored the game's sole try late on through Fabien Galthie, but only after missing four simple-ish kicks, including a hook by Christophe Lamaison from almost bang in front. Matt Burke, in contrast, landed all his six attempts as the world champions again showed how difficult they are to beat, even lacking the spine of the side which won the Webb Ellis trophy.
The watching Clive Woodward and Graham Henry saw little to terrify England or the Lions, or Scotland on Saturday for that matter, but the modern Wallabies are always more effective than the sum of their often unspectacular parts.
Their half-backs never left first gear, and the French defence, vastly improved under their English-born defensive coach Dave Ellis, often sent would-be attackers hurtling backwards. What the Australians do have, though, is endless patience, which is the quality Laporte is seeking to drum into the home team.
Beneath the technical theory and "after you, Claude" lectures to the wild men still lurks an overpowering sense that France's true potential is unleashed only when their dander is up, as in the last 10 minutes when the promising Wallaby flanker George Smith was sin-binned for coat-hangering Franck Comba, France's most elusive runner.
Laporte spoke of his men getting overexcited near the try-line, guilty of "smelling the cake", to use the French expression, ignoring the fact that precious few crumbs of comfort will be left for rugby's neutrals if Les Bleus become too slavishly devoted to percentages.
Parisians are certainly not the type to waste their Saturday nights on the mundane. L'Equipe wondered whether the televised rugby would divert adult viewers from their usual weekend fix, the schedulers having dared to pit "Le brave coq tricolore nez a nez avec le porno". Burke's lazily-swinging right boot, if nothing else, ensured le brave coq came a poor second.
France: Garbajosa; Lombard, Comba, Dourthe, Bory; Lamaison, Galthie; Marconnet, (Tournaire, 61 min), Landreau, Califano, Brouzet (Auradou, 58), Pelous (capt), Moni (Betsen, 68), Magne, Juillet (Azam, 80).
Australia: Latham; Burke, Herbert, Mortlock, Roff; Kafer, Cordingley; Young, Foley (Paul, 16), Dyson (Panoho, 54), Giffin, Eales (capt), Cockbain (Connors, 49), Smith, Kefu (Williams, 65).
Referee: P Honiss (New Zealand).
