France in the driving seat

France went into the break with a 14-point lead after making lightning start in their Pool A match at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday.

Japan, looking to break a run of 14 RWC games without a victory, the longest in the tournament's history and up against the highest-ranked northern hemisphere side, were run off their feet from the outset. These sides had only met once in this tournament, with France triumphing 51-29 in October 2003 in Townsville, Australia.

France stated their intentions to play at pace from the outset.

It took a brilliant tackle to bring down wing Fabrice Estebanez with the line seemingly at his mercy, but they were soon over through second row Julien Pierre after another sharp move.

Dimitri Yachvili converted and France continued to step on the gas, cruising into a 14-0 lead after 12 minutes when Francois Trinh-Duc intercepted a pass inside his own half and sprinted away for another converted try.

Japan got on the scoreboard with a 17th-minute penalty through fly-half James Arlidge, the only Japan player to play his rugby abroad.

Although Japan had their moments, Yachvili hit back with two penalties, the last for a scrum infringement to put France 20-3 up after 28 minutes.

But Japan, to their credit, had a sweet moment straight after when the industrious Arlidge regathered his kick through that had rebounded off a France player and beat two defenders to race over.

It was another sharp backline move, finished off by wing Vincent Clerc, that put France 25-8 ahead.

Arlidge added another penalty to have Japan trailing 25-11 at the break.