What is it about drizzly conditions in Paris that inspires dramatic starts to Six Nations tournaments? Friday evening’s opener was pretty low on quality overall. However, Wales’ 24-19 victory – or, rather, France’s 24-19 defeat – delivered on entertainment and intrigue. Most of all, it summed up where the two teams are. As Warren Gatland suggested afterwards, Wales have forgotten how to lose. France, on the other hand, remain infuriatingly unreliable. Contrasting aspects of the hosts’ performance, first-half efficiency followed by a second-half capitulation, reinforced that truism in spectacular style. Part one: Invention and efficiency France’s two tries demonstrated their intrepid attack at its best and showed how they can feast on fractured situations. We begin this sequence just after a Wales lineout as Hadleigh Parkes is running flat to take a pass from Gareth Anscombe. Damian Penaud, coming into midfield to look after the threat of opposite man Josh Adams, and Louis Picamoles are the men to track:<doc-sep>Get the latest news, analysis and interviews Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Clive Woodward admits Wales have put down a Six Nations marker for the visits of England and Ireland to Cardiff with their win in Paris on Friday night. While Wales were making history coming back from 16-0 down at half-time to beat Les Bleus 24-19, on Saturday evening Eddie Jones' England were putting down their own Six Nations marker against 2018 Grand Slam champions Ireland. Their 32-20 victory was the first time Ireland have been beaten at home in the Six Nations since 2013 securing Jones' 29th win in 36 Tests. (Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire) And though Wales travel to Italy on Saturday and England host the deflated French 24-hours later, it all points to the Red Rose's clash in Cardiff on February 23 taking on gigantic proportions. Just a week ago Woodward outlined why England would win the Six Nations his reasoning behind tipping Wales to finish third. And now 2003 World Cup-winning coach Woodward wrote in his column for Mail Online: "Friday's madcap game in Paris has huge relevance to England because France come to Twickenham next Sunday and, for 40 minutes, they played like a team of world beaters. (Image: PA) "They played at pace but then they looked like they had forgotten how to win a game of rugby. "Wales' 24-19 win has teed up the tournament brilliantly for the neutral. "France might have forgotten how to win a game of rugby but, as Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, said, his team have forgotten how to lose matches. "They host England and Ireland in Cardiff further down the track and Gatland, who has played this superbly, has already stated that if Wales won at Stade de France they would win the Six Nations title. (Image: PA) "Bold stuff from a bold coach but, when the TV cameras panned to Gatland and his coaching team, there was absolutely no panic, even when they were 16-0 down. Bring on the next round. "I was confident England would win and tipped them all week but I seemed to be in a minority of one - there was a real buzz coming out of the camp and they nailed it. "The stats were against them. England have won once in Dublin in the Six Nations since 2003 and had not scored a single try in the tournament there since Steve Thompson's consolation effort in 2011. "Joe Schmidt, the Irish head coach, had never lost a Six Nations game at the Aviva Stadium. They are ranked second in the world to England's fourth. "This is a top Irish team but they were undone by smart coaching and smart players. This was the strongest England team I have seen for a long time. "Make no mistake, this was the biggest win for England under Eddie Jones and a real boost in what will be a massive year. What a fantastic performance against the form side in the world and what a fantastic way to kick off 2019. "The Grand Slam in 2016, the 3-0 series win away in Australia, the Six Nations title in 2017 - this trumps the lot and Eddie will be feeling a lot happier. "I can't remember England playing better in his tenure. From one to 15, they were huge and Owen Farrell led the team brilliantly. Flanker Tom Curry had a blinder, despite his first-half yellow card and Jonny May proved he is one of the best wingers in the world."<doc-sep>Get the latest news, analysis and interviews Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Wales head to Nice and the Cote d’Azur as Six Nations record-breakers after staging a remarkable fightback to mug France 24-19 in a rain-lashed Paris last night. Wales trailed by 16 points at the end of the first half but responded magnificently, posting a 10th successive win and equalling their longest undefeated run since 1999. It eclipsed the previous best comeback in the tournament’s history – the French overturning a 15-0 deficit after 37 minutes to defeat Ireland 26-21 in the 1989 Five Nations. But Wales coach Warren Gatland has much to ponder during the trip to the south of France for a training camp ahead of facing Italy in Rome next Saturday. Who were the winners and losers during a real Jekyll and Hyde performance? WINNERS WARREN GATLAND Wales took advantage of French demons on Friday night with Gatland pulling off a couple of masterstrokes. (Image: PA) Young lock Adam Beard had been disrupting French attempts at driving mauls, but putting Cory Hill on just eight minutes into the second half brought energy, dynamism and added mobility to help swing it up front. But Gatland wasn’t finished as he made another decisive early decision, hauling off half-backs Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe seconds after the latter had converted George’s North’s opening try to reduce the the deficit to just two points. Scrum-half Williams had been on the end of Josh Adam’s break for the first try but, like his Cardiff Blues colleague, had found it difficult in the downpour and being harried by opponents who swamped the breakdown area. Many coaches would have kept them on with only 12 minutes of the second half having gone and Wales having at last clicked, but not Gatland. He wanted more from his game managers and the expert goal-kicking of Dan Biggar so the Northampton pivot and Gareth Davies were sent on to finish the job. Not all Gatland’s changes worked – the Wales scrum got weaker as the game progressed and almost cost them the spoils – but he had acted as all good leaders should by being decisive and ruthless. WALES’ BACK-ROW TRIO (Image: PA) Wales just couldn’t hang on to the ball in an opening 40 minutes of error-strewn rugby that would have probably been heavily punished by Six Nations favourites Ireland, England or Scotland. But Justin Tipuric, Ross Moriarty and Josh Navidi were immense in quelling the French offensive with their defensive efforts. Navidi just gets on with the job of being a thorn in the side of the opposition, Tipuric was used to successfully disrupt the quality of ball from French throws to the line-out by being thrown into the air and was into everything in the loose. He put home scrum-half Morgan Parra off his game with a rib-tickler of a hit and appeared to be attached to the ball by elastic as he nearly always seemed to be in its vicinity. No.8 Moriarty’s effort and the way he kept going to the end after hardly playing since last November’s Tests because of concussion was extraordinary. You can read how we rated them and all the other Wales players here. JOSH ADAMS AND GEORGE NORTH Have you heard the tale of the two wingers? One knew exactly what he was doing and rarely put a foot wrong while the other, quite frankly, could hardly do anything right. Yet the player having an absolute shocker, North, managed to score two opportunist tries and be named official man of the match. North's defence and work under the high ball with France prying on him was painful to watch at times. Adams, on the other hand, is a natural rugby player who sparked the comeback with a break out of nothing. Many would have attempted to go the whole way but he calmly looked for support and ensured a try by passing to the unmarked Williams. North has to join him in the winners’ category because his two tries outweighed the negatives. LIAM WILLIAMS AND JONATHAN DAVIES (Image: Getty Images) Williams was rock-solid dealing with the up-and-unders that quite literally rained down on him from the filthy Paris night sky. And he ran beautifully to be, along with Davies and Adams, Wales’ most effective strike weapons. Williams had a try disallowed after carving a brilliant line through the French defence before losing control of the ball as he slid fro the line. Davies would have strolled over if Williams had passed to him. I’d argue he could have before a defender cut off the avenue but some maintain it wasn’t on. That was about his only blemish. Centre Davies led the defensive line in the backs and attempted to grab the game by the scruff of its neck when he finally got his hands on the ball in the second half. His powerful burst led to Ross Moriarty scoring, only for it to be chalked off for obstruction by Alun Wyn Jones. Wales actually crossed the whitewash four times, which was incredible when you consider how badly they had performed, the awful playing conditions and their lack of territory and possession. LOSERS GARETH ANSCOMBE AND TOMOS WILLIAMS Gatland had stated picking Anscombe was a "confidence" rather than a rugby decision following his impressive displays as Wales went unbeaten during the autumn campaign. But, when he saw the weather on match-day, Gatland must have wondered whether he had made the right call for the conditions with them being right up the dependable Biggar’s street. Anscombe was as poor as a number of his team-mates during the first half, kicking out on the full, missing goal-kicks, throwing a bad pass to Hadleigh Parkes and drifting too wide while scrambling in defence to make it easier for Louis Picamoles to score.<doc-sep>The man from the New Zealand Herald may have dismissed Saturday’s Ireland v England Six Nations encounter with the disdain of a wine snob contemplating a plastic cup of cheap plonk. And, OK, the Red Rose team’s victory wasn’t pretty patterns and sweet sherry all the way. But was it impressive? Well, most of us thought it was, with bells on. This was England turning up for duty in a way they haven’t done in years. All over the pitch, white-shirted players won the collisions. They denied Irish players space to generate momentum. They took their chances. They played like a team who had been conditioned to win. There is another round of Six Nations matches before Wales host Eddie Jones’s side, and much can change in the space of a single weekend. But some are already viewing the match in Cardiff as potentially the defining game of the tournament. Bookmakers have installed England as strong favourites for the Six Nations title, with some cutting their Grand Slam odds from 11/1 to 13/8. What can Wales do about it? We take a close look... France vs Wales in pictures Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will auto-play soon 8 Cancel Play now HOW GOOD WERE ENGLAND? How to put this? They smashed Ireland, who had beaten New Zealand barely two months earlier. And the win was achieved in Dublin, where the men in green hadn’t lost in 12 Six Nations matches. What was particularly impressive was the way Eddie Jones’s side imposed themselves on the game, scoring a try after just two minutes and physically dominating. They declined to take a backward step in the scrums, won the midfield battle and around the field and in the set-pieces Mako Vunipola was colossal, with 27 tackles, 11 ball carries and not an inch conceded against Tadhg Furlong in the pushing and shoving areas. Once, front-row forwards contented themselves with just doing a bit of scrumming and lifting. Maybe some of them came up with more than 27 tackles over an entire season. Maybe not. Whatever, Vunipola’s effort was something else. (Image: Getty Images) Jamie George, Mark Wilson, Tom Curry, Owen Farrell, Henry Slade, Manu Tuilagi and Johnny May were all to the fore, as well, while Billy Vunipola packed punch on the gain-line. Also, England got their preparations right. They had been using grip-free balls soaked in soapy water during their warm-weather training camp in the Algarve ahead of the game. When the expected Irish aerial bombardment came they dealt with it. Conor Murray’s box-kicking was excellent, but rare was the England player who dropped a high kick. A key element of the Irish game-plan had been neutralised. All England’s big-name players came to the party. WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN FOR WALES? Well, it means they have a serious game on their hands in Cardiff on February 23. But we knew that, anyway. Of course we did. Six Nations scriptwriters had written up the Wales v Ireland game on March 16 as potentially the hottest ticket in town. The thinking was that both those sides would be unbeaten come the final weekend and a Grand Slam shootout would ensue. But the story has changed. Ireland are out of Slam contention and England and Wales are still in it. Also, England have three home games still to play in this tournament, all of which they will fancy winning. Cardiff is shaping up as the pivotal game in their campaign. (Image: Getty Images) Wales have silverware ambitions of their own. Beat Italy this coming weekend and they will be eyeing a full house themselves heading into the England match. For both teams, then, there will be everything to play for. THE CARDIFF FACTOR AND DOES IT STILL EXIST? Sky sports pundit and former England fly-half Stuart Barnes was unequivocal in the build-up to this tournament, saying: "Wales might face two of the big guns, England and Ireland, at home but these sides have won more than they have lost in Cardiff this century. “The Cardiff factor doesn’t stack up, not when Ireland and England come calling.” There is something to be said for Barnes’s argument, with England winning three times over their past five visits and Ireland regularly finding the Principality Stadium a house of gain. But every now and then the planets can align and Cardiff becomes a seriously daunting place for sides in white shirts. Think 2013, when Wales thrashed the Grand Slam-seeking old enemy 30-3 to win the Six Nations title themselves. The atmosphere inside the ground that day crackled; England buckled. The Guardian once told the story of former England captain John Scott reporting that before the match in Cardiff in 1979 all he could hear in the dressing room beforehand was the knocking of knees. And, during his stint as Red Rose head coach, Jack Rowell admitted: “When we go to Cardiff we take on a whole nation, rather than just 15 rugby players. “It’s not always easy to come to terms with that. “It’s no good ignoring it as a factor. You simply have to accept it and try and deal with it by what you achieve on the field.” Rowell described England’s pre-1990s Cardiff curse as being linked to the “adverse history and psychology of English teams playing in Wales”, adding: “It is not something that England sides over the years have dealt with particularly well.” During his stint as Red Rose skipper Martin Johnson had his own way of handling it, on one occasion stopping as England were about to leave the dressing room and encouraging his players to listen to a pumped-up Cardiff crowd. “Let’s shut them up,” he said. England did exactly that. So much depends on individuals. But this neighbourly clash is no ordinary game, especially in Cardiff. THE PHYSICAL TOLL England have arguably the most depth in world rugby, courtesy of their massive player pool. But they lost Maro Itoje to injury over weekend and he brings things to a game that few locks can replicate.<doc-sep>
Warren Gatland had claimed in the run-up to this match that a Wales win in Paris would be the springboard for them to go on to lift the Six Nations title. This win in the most dramatic of fashions – crowned by George North who scored twice – could yet prove to be some launch pad. It was just a remarkable game. Wales looked dead and buried at half time as they as they were beaten up and outplayed by a revitalised France who scored twice through Louis Picamoles and Yoann Huget. Their lead should have been more, but Morgan Parra missed three kicks. Somehow, Gatland saw his Wales team rise like a phoenix from the ashes as they launched a stunning comeback. They could hardly have been worse than they were before the break, but in the second half Tomos Williams got them back into it and North’s stunning double plus two conversions from Gareth Anscombe and five points from Dan Biggar gave them the win. Parra whips out a pass from a ruck during the first half (Getty) Gatland – rightly – was a confident man ahead of kick-off with his team on a nine-match unbeaten run, ranked third in the world, and having won six of their last seven meetings with Les Bleus. France meanwhile handed a Test debut to 19-year-old Toulouse rookie Romain Ntamack – the son of legendary former wing Emile – in midfield. Ntamack was listed on the team sheet at outside centre despite being named in the week at No 12, but his team were soon ahead. Wales spilled the ball from a set-piece move and France capitalised. They spread the ball left and then right with No 8 Picamoles given too much room out wide to finish despite a despairing Liam Williams tackle attempt. Morgan Parra couldn’t convert and the scrum-half then followed it with a penalty miss after Josh Adams was penalised at a ruck. Anscombe was also awry with Wales’ first shot at goal. Picamoles crashes over for the hosts (Getty) After a poor start, Wales finally woke up but even then things weren’t going their way. Anscombe and Hadleigh Parkes combined to send full-back Williams away and he made it to the line only to have been judged by the TMO to have spilled the ball in the process of scoring. It was unfortunate for the Saracens ace, but the truth was Wales’ forwards were being blown away up front, just as they had been in the first quarter in Paris in 2017. Huget soon made it two. The try was made by flanker Arthur Iturria. Receiving the ball under pressure, Iturria drew both Anscombe and George North and released Huget with a simple yet sublime pass. He did the rest. Parra again couldn’t convert and Anscombe missed a second Welsh penalty effort before Lopez took over French kicking duties to slot a simple three-pointer and then with the last kick off the half, he also landed a supreme drop goal. A 16-0 interval lead was the least France deserved. Gatland kept faith with Anscombe and half-back partner Tomos Williams – who looked like a rabbit in the headlights in the first period – for the second half. It paid off. Wales try their best to break through the French defence (Getty) Out of nowhere, Wales gave themselves a lifeline. Josh Adams side-stepped through the French defence with a moment of magic and Tomos Williams was there in support to slide over. Anscombe converted and it soon got even better as Wales started the comeback trail. From a scrum, Parkes kicked ahead. Huget ran back to cover but inexplicably spilled the ball trying to collect. North was following up well and profited to score. Anscombe kicked the goal. All of a sudden it was 16-14 and Gatland introduced new half backs in Gareth Davies and Biggar with the game on a knife-edge. Tomos Williams’ kickstarted Wales’ stunning fightback (Getty) Ross Moriaty then had a try ruled out for blocking by Alun Wyn Jones but after Lopez caught the kicking yips, Biggar stepped up to calmly boot Wales into the lead for the first time. A giant French scrum won the hosts a penalty and Lopez slotted it for what looked like the winning kick but there was still time for more late drama.