AT LAST Wales gave a performance worthy of themselves, one reminiscent of the all-action style of play that won them the grand slam and many friends last season. Whether they did it as a rousing send-off for Scott Johnson, the popular acting coach who is expected to announce shortly that he is returning to Australia, whether it was born of frustration at two recent below-par performances or whether it was what they had been trying to do all season does not really matter.

This was a match and a half, one in which many Wales players stood up and were counted. Mike Phillips was a live-wire scrum half, strong and aggressive. Much the same could be said of Hal Luscombe in the centre. These two young men, 24 and 25 respectively, had the game of their lives. Fly halves have traditionally been two-a-penny in Wales but now the country has arguably the best scrum half in the world in Dwayne Peel and, in Phillips and the injured Gareth Cooper, two others breathing down his neck. “You saw players today who will grow and are pressing for positions, which is exactly what we want,” Johnson said.

But it was not only outside the scrum that Wales had stars. Adam Jones, the tight-head prop who had admitted to having been “hammered, absolutely hammered” by Sylvain Marconnet in the game in Paris last year, made the France front row struggle. Even the lineout, traditionally a problem for Wales, was less of a mess than usual.

Yet France stole victory, somewhat against the run of play, and with it became the RBS Six Nations champions. It is somehow typical of what has been a disappointing championship that they should only have done so near the end of a game in which they had been behind for 48 minutes. One felt, as one often does when watching France, that at any moment they might kick-start themselves into scoring a couple of electric tries but until Florian Fritz crossed the line in the 72nd minute, which gave them the lead for the first time, they looked as though they were being held in check by Wales.

To give credit where it is due, France, having lost at Murrayfield in their opening game of the championship, won the next four games and scored the most points in the Six Nations since 2000. “I am proud of the team,” Bernard Laporte, the France coach, said. “We did not panic (after losing to Scotland). No one jumped ship. We stayed together and we have been undefeated in seven matches in France now.”

Mike Ruddock, the previous Wales coach, often talked of wanting his team to play “high-tempo rugby, sexy rugby”. The men in red certainly did this on Saturday. Both sides played at something approaching maximum pace and if there were one or two tired France players in the second half when the visiting team could have been accused of time-wasting, then there were one or two exhausted Wales players flat on their backs at the end. Perhaps it was the frustration of seeing a game they had dominated snatched from them after they had done so much to secure it.

Now that the championship is over and Wales have gone from grand-slam champions to fifth place, perhaps the dissatisfaction felt at the Welsh Rugby Union’s handling of the Ruddock affair will come to the fore. There is certainly a puzzled mood in Wales at what went on and what is going on. How great is the will for a fight, though?

It may be that the feel-good factor generated by this game, even though it was lost, will have taken the wind out of the sails of those clubs who are thought to be contemplating calling for an emergency meeting. The purpose of such a meeting would be to censure David Pickering, the WRU chairman, and Steve Lewis, the chief executive, neither of whom enjoys the full confidence of everyone in rugby in Wales, for their role in the extraordinary events of the past month.

SCORERS: Wales: Try: Luscombe (31min). Conversion: S Jones. Penalty goals: S Jones 2 (3, 24), Henson 54. France: Tries: Szarzewski (48), Fritz (72). Conversion: Elissalde. Penalty goals: Yachvili 2 (10, 37), Elissalde (77).

SCORING SEQUENCE (Wales first): 3-0, 3-3, 6-3, 13-3, 13-6 (half-time), 13-11, 16-11, 16-18, 16-21.

WALES: L Byrne (Llanelli Scarlets; rep: G Henson, Ospreys, 41); D James (Llanelli Scarlets), H Luscombe (Newport Gwent Dragons), M Watkins (Llanelli Scarlets), S Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (Clermont Auvergne), M Phillips (Cardiff Blues); Duncan Jones (Ospreys; rep: G Jenkins, Cardiff Blues, 50), R Thomas (Cardiff Blues; rep: M Davies, Gloucester, 41), A R Jones (Ospreys), I Gough (Newport Gwent Dragons), R Sidoli (Cardiff Blues; rep: J Thomas, Ospreys, 74), M Owen (Newport Gwent Dragons, captain), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), A Popham (Llanelli Scarlets; rep: Dafydd Jones, Llanelli Scarlets, 68).

FRANCE: T Castaignède (Saracens; rep: C Heymans, Toulouse, 41); A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), F Fritz (Toulouse), D Traille (Biarritz), C Dominici (Stade Français); F Michalak (Toulouse), D Yachvili (Biarritz; rep: J-B Elissalde, Toulouse, 43); S Marconnet (Stade Français), R Ibañez (London Wasps, sin-bin, 24-34; rep: D Szarzewski, Stade Français, 41), P de Villiers (Stade Français), F Pelous (Toulouse, captain), J Thion (Biarritz), Y Nyanga (Toulouse), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin; rep:

L Nallet, Castres, 55), T Lièvremont (Biarritz; rep: O Magne, London Irish, 48).

Referee: C White (England).

Attendance: 74,211.