France took a giant step towards appearing in the final of the 2005 tournament, set for Carcassonne at the beginning of November, with a comprehensive 14-try demolition of the disappointing Bears.

Now under the guidance of former Wigan and London coach John Monie, the hosts added defensive steel to their traditional gallic flair to run out easy winners, influential scrum half Maxime Greseque, who starred for Featherstone last season, leading the charge with two tries and four goals in a commanding display.

The damp conditions did little to deter the free scoring French, who now face a much more difficult proposition in a friendly fixture with England at Headingley next Sunday evening.

The scoring opened as early as the third minute, Jerome Merret gathering Greseque’s cross field kick; Laurent Frayssinous adding the conversion from the touchline before opposite winger Olivier Charles similarly profited from more Greseque scheming on the blind side.

Greseque was instrumental in the third try when he caught the Russian defence napping, sliding through an early kick which Hull K.R. centre Damien Couturier won the race to. The Russians then had their best period of the game in terms of concerted possession although their field position was limited by a stifling French defence.

French back rower Laurent Carrasco was having an increasing influence, off-loading twice in a move that sent Gregory Mounis across by the posts in the 24th minute.

A quick try-double just before half time emphasised the French dominance; prop David Ferriol barged his way over from close in and Adam Innes exploited an overlap on the right hand side to go over unopposed to make it 34-0 at the break.

With confidence running high through the home ranks, they were soon back over the whitewash at the start of the second half, Greseque opting to run on the last tackle and quick hands sending Julien Rinaldi over.

In the 48th minute, Ferriol grabbed his second try when he crashed over from 10 metres with Greseque adding the simple conversion.

With the French halves now tormenting the Russian defensive line, tries followed at regular intervals.

Sebastien Raguin was next across, followed by Freddie Zitter’s opportunistic effort when he stole in from a quick play the ball which again exploited the blind side markers.

Rinaldi’s fine break sent Christophe Moly in, the Russians then turning over cheap possession for Renaud Gigue to slice through.

With the gallant visitors visibly tiring going into the last ten minutes, the French made the most of the extra space on offer.

The try of the match was scored when the free flowing French backs showed excellent interplay with resulted in a deserved score for Greseque.

He repeated the dose three minutes later, hacking on a Russian fumble and winning the race to the ball, Fraysinnous landing his tenth conversion.

For the French, this was a confidence and team building display for tougher international challenges to come this autumn including Australia and New Zealand with Jamal Fakir, Carrasco and Raguin consistently making good yards.

The Russians will have to quickly re-group for their huge international derby, an inaugural clash with Georgia, in Moscow next week.

Second rower Alexander Lysenkov was tireless in the pack and out wide Artem Grigorian was the most noticeable contributor.

On the physical front the visitors coped well but lacked sufficient structure and technique to make any inroads into French territory.


FRANCE
1 Renaud Guigue
2 Olivier Charles
3 Damien Couturier
4 Adam Innes
5 Jerome Hermet
6 Laurent Frayssinous
7 Maxime Greseque
8 Jerome Guisset
9 Cedric Gay
10 David Ferriol
11 Laurent Carrasco
12 Gregory Mounis
13 Christophe Moly
Subs (all used)
14 Julien Rinaldi
15 Jamal Fakir
16 Sebastian Raguin
17 Frederic Zitter

RUSSIA
1 Oleg Slokov
2 Rinat Shamsutdinov
3 Sergey Dobrynin
4 Artem Grigorian
5 Valentin Baskakov
6 Victor Nechaev
7 Igor Gavrilin
8 Ian Gvozdev
9 Roman Ovtchinnokov
10 Andrey Dumalkin
11 Alexander Lysenkov
12 Irakli Chshikvadze
13 Evgeny Bozhoukov
Subs (all used)
14 Andrey Kuzovkov
15 Denise Korolev
16 Alexander Chulkof
17 Nikolay Zagoskin

Half time: 34-0

Referee: Julian King (England)
Attendance: 1102