Defending Six Nations champions France sneak past Italy in Rome thriller

Six Nations Grand Slam holders France began their Championship defence with a nervy win over Italy in Rome on Sunday afternoon.

Les Bleus picked up a try bonus point win in their 29-24 victory in the Italian capital but Italy had led 24-22 in the final quarter.

France crossed the try line on three occasions in the first half – through Thibaud Flament, Thomas Ramos and debutant Ethan Dumortier as the tourists looked to be in fine form.

But Italy pegged them back with a trio of Tommaso Allan penalties and an unconverted Ange Capuozzo score to trail by just five at the break.

Ramos and Allan traded kicks and Italy were handed a penalty try by referee Matthew Carley to hand the Azzurri a 24-22 lead.

But France’s class shone and replacement Matthieu Jalibert found his way over to score the winning try – Italy had a chance to win it at the death but lost the ball at the set piece.

“It’s quite tough to swallow, this defeat” Allan said after the defeat to France. “We’ve got to find balance and have some execution.

“But there are a lot of positives to take from this. We will look at it, we are very confident for next week’s game.

“It’s those small, small margins you talk about. We’re improving every week but we’ve got to start winning as well. We know we can win, we showed some good rugby today and we will see what happens next week.”

Next week France will travel to Dublin and take on Ireland in the early kick-off on Saturday in what many are describing as the title decider.

Italy remain in Rome and host England – the Azzurri have never beaten next week’s tourists in the Six Nations.