Théo Attisogbé, the 20-year-old winger from Pau who scored two of France’s tries: “[The Six Nations] is a legendary competition. I've been watching the tournament since I was five or six years old, so playing at home, in front of 80,000 people, was a highlight that will remain etched in my memory forever.”
"For me, this game next week [against Italy] is the biggest in Welsh rugby for the last 15 or 20 years,” said former Wales fly-half Dan Biggar. “I’m not saying that light-heartedly. It’s a huge, huge match."
Wales head coach Warren Gatland on taking positives from the loss to France: “I can't question the effort of the players. They are disappointed. They realise what a quality side they were up against. I don't think it was a complete bad night at the office.
“There were times when we had them under pressure and didn't capitalise. We started well, but when we look back we have put ourselves under pressure at times by over-playing. That is the game-management the players will learn from tonight."
Guinness Player of the Match Grégory Alldritt: "We want to win [the Championship], but we need to stay humble. Ireland are really strong this year, and England are coming back strong as well. Be humble."
Fabien Galthié, France head coach, on his team’s watertight defence under former Wales coach Shaun Edwards: “When you take zero points, the performance is perfect. However, we were 50/50 on possession […] But zero points conceded is a sign of accuracy in the balance between defence and attack. Sometimes, the attack plays too much and penalises the defence. The two are closely linked.”
“Our discipline let us down quite a bit in that game and a team like France will capitalise on your ill-discipline and mistakes,” said Wales captain Jac Morgan. “Sometimes in attack we weren’t quite accurate or clinical enough, didn’t take our opportunities. There was a lot of good there, a lot of promise, and we’ve just got to stay tight as a group and keep on building over the next few weeks.”
“England have been served notice that France will be a formidable proposition at Twickenham next weekend, even without a number of frontline players, as they were on Friday night,” wrote John Westerby in The Times. “Dupont, after missing last year’s tournament for his Olympic sabbatical, was endlessly inventive, fizzing with ideas. If he were not dangerous enough already, he has now been afforded greater by the new law trials that afford scrum halves greater protection at the base of scrums and mauls.”
