Six Nations: France vs Wales

France vs Wales

Date: 14/2/2026

KO Time: 15:10

Location: Millenium Stadium, Cardiff

An enjoyable first half with some exhilarating breaks from France and a lot of struggle from a Welsh point of view. Matthieu Jalibert destroyed defences, scoring a try and being involved in almost every attacking moment. France opened the scoring in the very first minute with a try from Emilien Gailleton.

Wales struggled badly in the first 15 minutes — the crowd went quiet and the players’ heads seemed to drop. Then a beautiful restart led to a Welsh try, finished brilliantly by Rhys Carre in the 17th minute, which lifted Welsh spirits.

For the rest of the half, France kept knocking on the door, but Wales managed to hold on until Adam Beard accidentally kicked the ball straight into Jalibert’s hands, and he ran it in to finish the half. Wales 7 – France 26. The second half started the same way, with another French try as Julien Marchand powered over from a maul. We saw some lovely sparks of magic from Jalibert throughout the game, including a cross-field kick that worked perfectly for Nicolas Depoortere Attissogbe.

Wales did manage to score again in the end, but it was still a devastating defeat Wales-12- France-54. I totally agree with the Man of the Match decision — Jalibert deserved it.

There were plenty of standout players in this game, including Bielle-Biarrey, Charles Ollivon, Attissogbe and Wainwright, who gave it their all.

France carry strong hopes going into Italy and Wales needing to up their game coming into Scotland.