Laporte satisfied despite kicker crux

FRANCE coach Bernard Laporte declared himself fairly satisfied with his team’s Six Nations performance, though admitting he must solve a flyhalf-goalkicker problem before this year’s World Cup.

“You cannot be entirely satisfied when you don’t finish first but I’m satisfied as whole,” he said yesterday. “We have got the best attack after scoring 17 tries, including three at Twickenham, and we possibly have the best defence as well which is a paradox.

“We lost games over penalties. We regret the match in Ireland. We lost it because we were damn stupid and not because the Irish played better. To win at Twickenham is not easy. Nobody has done it over the last three years. We had a good game and I think the match was as good as won. England defeated us by an eight-point margin. They scored three penalties which didn’t exist and we gave away nine very kickable points.”