Tougher tests await France in their quest to reconquer this famous championship, but the stylish manner in which Les Bleus sent Wales onwards to Rome licking deep wounds will have attracted the attention of all those with title aspirations, even if Romain Ntamack is likely to miss a chunk of the Six Nations owing to a late red card. Last week, Paris celebrated fashion and on Friday night the country’s team matched the city of light’s flamboyance, condemning Wales to their heaviest defeat on French soil in bonus-point, seven-try style. Whether these Frenchmen are Grand Slam material remains to be seen but when the likes of Grégory Alldritt, Antoine Dupont and Louis Bielle-Biarrey are in this mood, who would want to bet against them.

The only source of Gallic gloom came in needless fashion, with the match wrapped up and eyes turning to Twickenham. Ntamack, France’s poster-boy fly-half, whacked Ben Thomas with a crazy, clumsy shoulder in the 70th minute and, after a bunker review, the action was rightly upgraded to a 20-minute red card. Barring the French lawyers playing a judicial blinder, Les Bleus will have to start either Matthieu Jalibert or the versatile Thomas Ramos – nominally a full-back – at No 10 for Le Crunch.

“We saw it,” Fabien Galthié, the France head coach, told France TV. “But we feel [Romain] doesn’t commit; he grows big but doesn’t commit. The yellow card and bunker was deserved. It’s open to discussion and it hands us [selection] questions.”. Dupont, France’s captain, added: “We spoke at half-time about being careful with our attitude because a poorly timed tackle could be costly. There was mitigation, a grey area. We’ll hope [Romain’s] suspension will be as small as possible. He has a clean track record, everyone knows Romain’s mentality. We hope it won’t be too heavy.”.

Wales were spirited and posed a few questions early on before the hosts leapt into life. But, in the end, Warren Gatland’s side, on the head coach’s 150th Test with Wales, were desperately outclassed in all areas, unable to muster so much as a solitary point. The tragedy was that none of it came remotely as a surprise and, off the back of this, Italy away next Saturday – in what many predict to be the wooden-spoon decider – looks a daunting proposition, with Wales seeking to arrest a losing streak which has now stretched to a record 13 Tests. The Stade de France shellacking also meant Wales equalled their worst Six Nations run of defeats with their seventh consecutive loss. Nilled for the first time in 18 years, too.

“A bit frustrating,” Gatland said. “We tried to go out with a positive attitude. We started well but we put ourselves under a bit of pressure by overplaying. I can’t question the effort. They’re disappointed but they realise the quality side that they were up against. You can’t question how hard they tried. There were times when we had them under pressure and we didn’t capitalise. “Italy is an important game for Wales – it’s not about where it ranks for me. We can’t hide from that. We need to get the monkey off our back.”.

To a man, France were more threatening and Galthié’s side will travel to Twickenham next week on the back of this rout having blown off the cobwebs. Dupont looked a little out of sorts for 10 minutes before switching into freak mode, setting up three of France’s four first-half tries – two for each wing, Théo Attissogbé and Bielle-Biarrey, with Damian Penaud missing through injury – as Les Bleus wrapped up the bonus point before the break. Try as they might – and, boy, did they – Wales just had no answer to the French pace, power, or panache. And what can Gatland, Rob Howley say to that? Sometimes, others are just better.

“Good to have you back,” declared the front page of France’s sports newspaper, L’Equipe, on Friday, welcoming Dupont and his half-back partner, Ntamack, into the starting XV for the first time since the summer before the 2023 World Cup, owing to the Olympics and injury, and it did not take long for that Toulousain magnetism to cause Wales problems. Dupont’s cross-kick for Attissogbé’s opener was executed with robotic accuracy; then the duo combined with club-mate Ramos and Uini Atonio for Bielle-Biarrey’s first. By the time Dupont was breaking, weaving, jinking and chucking Hail Marys for tries three and four, it was becoming mental torment for Wales, especially given one of the scoring passes looked suspiciously forwarded. With his hat-trick of assists, this extraordinary scrum-half moved into second on the Six Nations all-time list.

After 49 minutes, it was job done for France, as Dupont departed along with five other starters. Greater Tests await. And, after the brains, came the brawn, as Julien Marchand motored over from a French maul to add the hosts’ fifth just after half-time. Later, Alldritt would also burrow over from close range. The style tap kept flowing, however, as Ntamack’s cross-kick found Émilien Gailleton to score out wide, before the fly-half was forced to depart.