LAURENT FRAYSSINOUS admitted France’s players were “shattered” after their 82-0 defeat to England in Perth.
It was their second heavy defeat of the tournament, after suffering a 78-4 loss to Samoa on the opening weekend.
Their tournament comes to a close next Sunday at the CommBank Stadium, where they will be looking to finish on a high against Lebanon – who have also lost both of their opening games.
“We’re pretty disappointed; losing by that much in both games hurts,” coach Frayssinous said.
“It’s not down to a lack of willingness; it’s a lack of doing the basics right defensively. We did that in the first 20 minutes, but after that, there was so much disconnection – there were too many missed tackles and disorganisation.
“We paid the price each time, so we’ve got to be better next week.
“We were in the arm wrestle, had our chances to score tries, and were defensively connected, but then there was one defensive disruption after another, and we couldn’t get back to where we were earlier in the game.
“It’s hard, we’ve got shattered players in our dressing room, but we’re also proud people, so we’ll keep on working hard and keep on fighting.”
