Coach hails ‘improved performance’

Having seen his side outscore France by three tries to two, Jenkins was full of praise for the effort and endeavour shown by the Welsh players. Yet he admitted that with such little quality possession it was difficult to stem the flow of France’s attacks and penalties.

“We wanted to perform in Paris and we did that. We want to win and we are disappointed we haven’t got a ‘W’ to our name,” said Jenkins. “We conceded too many penalties and didn’t get enough possession to compete. We only had 35% in the first-half, which was nowhere near enough.

“We were competitive in the second half and we took the game to them and gave them a game. We were very physical, but we are only getting 40% possession in matches and that isn’t enough to win.

“We came to Paris with our heads up and determined to put in a good performance. I’m satisfied that we have turned the corner. We have got two games to go and we have to target them for a victory. We know we have got to travel to a difficult place in two weeks time.”

Wales skipper Stephen Jones claimed his side had ‘taken a huge step forward’ despite their defeat in Paris, claiming: “We’re back to our old ways. In the first game against Ireland we played very well but we didn’t win and that hurt. Against Scotland was a bad performance, we accepted that and that really hurt.

“Here we took a huge step in the right direction; we’re bitterly disappointed to have lost but from a rugby point of view we’re back to our old ways. France are a strong side and although people associate them with flair they were very well organised.

“We had a game plan and being fourteen points up we thought it was going well. In fairness to France, in the last twenty minutes of the first half they played very well and stopped us having the ball. They made us work very hard.”