France 13-13 Italy: Azzurri fly-half Paolo Garbisi hits the post with rushed last-gasp penalty as rudderless 14-man Les Bleus falter in Antoine Dupont’s absence

The same weekend that their star Antoine Dupont made his debut with seven players in Vancouver, a directionless France with 14 men drew 13-13 against Italy in Lille.

In an extraordinary finish, Azzurri flyhalf Paolo Garbisi had the chance to win the game for his team with the last shot.

But when Garbisi lined up what would have been a match-winning penalty had it been successful, the ball fell off the tee.

With the 90-second shot clock ticking and counting down, the Italian playmaker had to quickly replace the ball and restart.

As expected, his kick was hasty. Garbisi’s shot hit the post and robbed Italy of what would have been their first Six Nations victory over France on French soil. The end result was that the two sides shared the spoils.

Paolo Garbisi came within inches of sealing a surprise victory for Italy on the road to Lille.

“I was thinking about trusting my process,” Garbisi said of his latest kicking drama.

“It’s part of my job to kick the can down the road, so I take full responsibility.” I feel sorry for the team because they were incredible.

“To all the Italian fans, it’s my fault.”

Dupont’s decision to pursue his Olympic dream in rugby’s shortest format means he is unavailable to lead Les Bleus in this year’s Six Nations.

Without the scrum-half, Fabien Galthie’s side are struggling. His performances in 2024 to date have been poor and it seems that his problems are due to more than just Dupont’s absence. They are clearly suffering from a hangover after being eliminated from their own World Cup in the quarter-finals last year.

They could not overcome the Azzurri after playing the second half with a numerical disadvantage after the expulsion of Jonathan Danty. Another disappointing French performance means the championship title is almost certainly out of reach as they sit in fourth place after three rounds.

Italy deserved the draw and could have gotten even more.

“Performance was good overall,” Garbisi added. “If you get to 13-13 in the last minute against France, you’ve done well. The extra man helped us in the second half.

“This is only the third game with the new coaching staff, so we are still learning. We have shown that we can do good things. Hopefully we can do it again in two weeks against Scotland.”

France’s power play allowed them to dominate territory and possession in the first half, although they only led 10-3 at halftime. Captain Charles Ollivon crossed and Thomas Ramos scored a conversion and a penalty, but France’s precision was lost. Italy’s defense was impressive.

And France lost flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert to injury and center Danty to what was initially a yellow card for a high tackle on Juan Ignacio Brex at the end of the first 40 minutes. Martin Page-Relo kicked an Italian penalty. Danty’s yellow rightly turned red before the second half began.

Ramos, who moved to number 10 from the side when Jalibert came off, made it 13-3 when play resumed. But Italy never went away and France’s high number of errors continued.

Garbisi took a second penalty for the Azzurri as France began to tire despite their coach Galthie unloading his bench to try to bring in fresh legs.

After Italy finally managed to string together some phase play, Ange Capuozzo, a teammate of many of the French players in Toulouse, crossed in the corner.

Garbisi nailed the conversion from the wing. He tied the score and set up a grandstand finish.

The Italian under-20 team beat France in the junior Six Nations on Friday and, right at the end, Garbisi had the chance to achieve a famous double.

Captain Charles Ollivon crossed the line for the only French try of the match.

Thomas Ramos moved from wing to number 10 and scored eight of France’s 13 points that day.

Ange Capuozzo scored Italy’s try after the break against several Toulouse teammates

But he suffered a heartbreaking and unfortunate end with the teeing incident, one that Italy will surely remember for many years to come as a huge missed opportunity.

France defense coach Shaun Edwards said: “At the end of the game we probably overdid it a little bit and took too many risks.” Fortunately they missed the shot.

“But we are disappointed with the draw. We expected to beat Italy. We had all the ball in the first half and it was total domination. The second half was exactly the opposite. Conceding 13 points with 14 men is not so bad. Offensively we need to create a Fastest ball in the ruck.”

Despite failing to win, a draw sent Italy back into the top 10 of the official World Rugby rankings for the first time since 2013.