Laborious and not glorious.
Sufficient, however, to equal a record series from another age, dating from the thirties, ten successes in a row, but that's all.
In pain, in panic, the Blues of Fabien Galthié ended up dominating Japan this Saturday in Tokyo (20-15) a week after a first success (42-23).
They go on vacation with a free spirit but without having fully satisfied their staff.
Like a week earlier, the Blues fell asleep in the first half.
But unlike the first test match, they never actually woke up.
In the middle of the refreshment breaks every ten minutes, drunk by the speed of the Japanese who had, this time, put some order in their crazy game, Charles Ollivon and his teammates just had time to bite before pass out.
On a tumble of three-quarters, Virimi Vakatawa alert of a skipped pass Matthis Lebel who spins on the left wing to register the first try (9th).
The beginnings of a demonstration?
Not really.
Because then, the Tricolors were content to suffer, multiplying the approximations, the tactical errors, the kicks that were too long.
Matthieu Jalibert played backwards, returning countless balls to Brave Blossoms who did not ask for so much.
The first Japanese test is the perfect illustration.
On a release from the opener in the middle, the counter-attack fuses, the legs grind, the passes spurt out and the rear Yamanaka finds himself in the in-goal (12th).
The same punishment is avoided a few minutes later but the Blues do not seem to take the warning into account and leave the initiatives to their opponents.
The rear Yamanaka took the opportunity to score a second try, on a new movement carried out at a hundred miles an hour, just before the break (15-7, 40th).
Cropped by their staff, the Habs, amorphous and clumsy, fail to get their hands on the ball.
They are still suffering and only rely on Japanese mistakes to stay in the game.
Scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud, who entered in place of Maxime Lucu, tried to shake up his troops by playing two penalties in quick succession by hand (56th) but nothing helped.
Even the slalom of the young rear of Racing Max Spring is marred by a gross foul on the next playing time.
It finally takes a new initiative from Baptiste Couilloud, very leggy, escaping after a closed scrum obtained on yet another Japanese naivety (71st) for the Blues of Fabien Galthié to win their tenth success in a row.
Dots
Japan: 2 tries from Yamanaka (12th, 40th), 1 conversion from Lee (40th), 1 penalty from Lee (19th).
France: 2 attempts by lebel (9th), Couilloud (71st), 2 conversions by Lucu (9th), Jalibert (71st);
2 penalties from Lucu (44th) and Jalibert (61st).
