The Brave Blossoms promised to bring a fast tempo to the match, and so it proved as modern icon Dupont was unceremoniously welcomed back to Test rugby with a charge-down in the opening minute by second row Warner Dearns. It came thrillingly close to resulting in a rapid Japan try, before the danger was snuffed out by a knock-on.
Shortly after, Louis Bielle-Biarrey almost beat opposing winger Jone Naikabula to a ball that had been kicked upfield towards the Japanese try-line. While the Bordeaux back didn’t win the foot race, the ball came loose under Naikabula’s body in the frenzied retreat, Bielle-Biarrey getting a hand to it for a TMO-confirmed try. Fly-half Thomas Ramos – a surprise choice at fly-half in favour of Matthieu Jalibert – failed to convert from a difficult angle: 5-0.
It became two tries in ten minutes for France when a cross-field kick from Ramos seemed to float in slow motion before outside centre Emilien Gailleton caught it and cut back inside to score. Ramos added the extras: 12-0.
Strapping openside Alexandre Roumat, son of former France international Olivier, gathered an unclaimed kick through from Bielle-Biarrey to make him next on the scoreboard at the close of the opening quarter, plunging over the line under heavy attention. Ramos made it two from three with his successful conversion: 19-0.
With almost 30 minutes on the clock, Ramos made a flat, long kick on the halfway line for Bielle-Biarrey to sprint in for his second try. The kicking gods were with Ramos, his unerring booth converting the try he had set up for an ominous 26-0 lead with more than ten minutes still to play in the first half.
A lineout move straight off France’s Marcoussis training paddock then caught Japan napping. Peato Mauvaka’s lineout found Dupont at the front, who returned the ball swiftly to send the hooker up the right wing for a splendid try that must have served to chip away at the visitors’ spirits. If there was any consolation for Eddie Jones’s men, it was that Ramos missed the conversion from the touchline for a half-time score of 31-0.
France began the second half much as they’d finished the first: with a front rower sailing over for a try – this time, loosehead Jean-Baptiste Gros the protagonist. It was 38-0 after Ramos had done the deed from the tee, and the Brave Blossoms needed to find a momentum shift from somewhere.
It duly came approaching the 50th minute, a move from inside their own 22 started by centre Dylan Riley sweeping all the way up the pitch and through any and all comers in blue. Fly-half Harumichi Tatekawa pinned his ears back and made it to the corner a split-second before he could be bundled into touch by the covering defence. Naoto Saito, like Dupont a scrum-half for Toulouse, made it seven points with his conversion.
Dupont showed exactly what the French XV faithful had been missing during his Olympic sabbatical when he made a trademark break and sent Japanese defenders scampering. Replacement back rower Paul Boudehent benefited from the chaos as he flopped over for a try, converted again by Ramos.
Japan were victims of misfortune when, on the hour, powerhouse replacement back rower Tevita Tatafu (not to be confused with his namesake playing for Japan) was held up over the line. All the more impressive was the fact that the player preventing the ball from being grounded was 19-year-old France wing Théo Attissogbé.
The good fortune, mainly of Tatafu’s own making this time, came a minute later when he intercepted a France pass, galloped up the field and, by a matter of inches, avoided a similar fate by managing to touch down for a hard-earned try: 45-12.
Dupont’s work was done when, having orchestrated a second try for Boudehent in the 65th minute with a beautiful pass out to Mauvaka -to set it in motion, he was replaced by Maxime Lucu. Converted by Ramos, the score end 52-12 and, for France, it was a job well done with the All Blacks in town in seven days' time.
