Rugby-France on right path despite Australia defeat

By Julien Pretot PARIS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - France provided plenty of reasons for optimism despite their narrow defeat to Australia on Saturday and showed they have rediscovered their flair under new manager Guy Noves after years of kicking the ball around and trying to dominate physically. "You achieve nothing by kicking the ball back to your opponents, by trying to smash them," Noves told a news conference after their 25-23 defeat in Paris. "You have to move the ball around, put speed into your game," added Noves, who took over from Philippe Saint-Andre after last year's World Cup where France were thrashed by eventual champions New Zealand in the quarter-finals. France, who beat Samoa 52-8 last weekend, played some scintillating rugby on Saturday but missed an injury-time drop goal as Australia clinched their third consecutive victory in the autumn internationals. Virimi Vakatawa, Jean-Marc Doussain and Wesley Fofana all scored tries for Les Bleus, with the rest of their points coming from the boot of Maxime Machenaud. "I think we were waiting to see whether we would be able to compete with the best teams in the world," said Noves, who criticized his players for their first half performance but was happy at the improvement after the break. "Our second half gave us the opportunity to see what we need to do against the great nations," said Noves, who warned that next Saturday's test against New Zealand would be an even tougher test. "They're a further notch above," he said. "So let's focus on our game, let's not just watch them play because if we do this we're going to spend a horrible evening." Australia coach Michael Cheika said France were on the right path. "The French team are now playing under Guy Noves, who has a great history with Toulouse and they're coming back to their attacking rugby," Cheika told a news conference. Noves led Toulouse to more than a dozen French and European titles and developed a reputation for producing some of the most attractive rugby on the continent. "If he continues like that the French team will not only win matches, they'll win matches playing good rugby. He has a good history of this," added Cheika. "You can see changes already, they're a very dangerous side." (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Peter Rutherford)