France will be without scrum-half Laure Sansus when they take on Fiji on Saturday after it was confirmed she would miss the rest of the tournament with a knee injury sustained in the first half of the defeat to England.

Fiji head into the final round of the pool stage on a high having recorded their first ever Rugby World Cup win in stunning fashion against South Africa on Sunday.

Despite conceding the lead with less than two minutes of the match remaining at Waitakere Stadium, when Libbie Janse van Rensburg sent a penalty sailing through the posts, Fijiana dug deep to surge upfield and secure victory.

Number eight Karalaini  Naisewa scored the match-winning try with a powerful finish, but it was the barn-storming prop Siteri Rasolea who started the move with a big carry.

Rasolea put in a huge shift in Auckland, carrying the ball for 93 metres and breaking through a combined seven tackles.

Captain Asinate Serevi said: “The energy going into the game today was positive. I think we just played to our strengths.”

“Even with two or three minutes left in the game, we knew we ha the confidence. We just said,”kick, let’s get it back and we score’, and that’s what we did.”

Although France slipped to an 11th successive loss against Eng- land on Saturday, the Red Roses have rarely been made to work so hard for victory during their record winning run.

Simon Middleton’s side struggled to make the most of their superior territory and possession in the face of an extraordinary French defensive effort.

Les Bleues made a combined 227 tackles – compared to England’s 73 – in Whangārei, with flanker Marjorie Mayans contributing 28 alone.

The positive for England and Middleton is that the Red Roses managed to get over the line, but the fear is France have produced a blueprint of how to beat them.

“I am proud of this group. I’m proud of this state of mind because we made them doubt,” Gaëlle Hermet said.

“We showed them that we were present and today it was maybe not the result we expected, but in any case it was not the most important game of the competition.

“We still have a game next week even if we would have liked to win it. But I want to tell them and I hope they will see us again very soon.”

Source- World Rugby

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