Ethan Dumortier scored a attempt on his France debut because the Les Bleus kick-started their Six Nations title defence with a 29-24 bonus-point victory over Italy on the Stadio Olimpico.
Thibault Flament, Thomas Ramos and Matthieu Jalibert additionally obtained on the scoresheet for the Grand Slam champions, whereas Ange Capuozzo dotted down for Italy and Tommaso Allan added 4 penalties.
The guests have been dealt a second-half scare when Charles Ollivon was despatched to the sin bin and Italy have been awarded a penalty attempt, at one level taking a second-half lead by way of Allan.
Les Bleus fended off the menace and can look to increase their successful streak to fifteen once they journey to Ireland subsequent weekend.
France have been on the scoresheet after 4 minutes when Italy scrum-half Stephen Varney tried a box-kick solely to be thwarted by the six-foot-eight Flament, who intercepted earlier than occurring an unstoppable run over the whitewash, with Ramos including the extras.
Allan booted in a penalty to slender the deficit earlier than France had a attempt dominated out, however Les Bleus quickly restored their benefit by way of Ramos.
Allan added one other penalty for the Azzurri earlier than Dumortier collected Romain Ntamack’s cross-field kick and dotted right down to open his account for France.
Italy responded by way of Capuozzo, who went on a sprightly run and was capable of evade Gregory Alldritt earlier than getting the ball down within the left nook, with Allan including a penalty to make it 19-14 on the midway level.
Ramos added three extra however Ollivon was quickly punished for bringing down the maul and the penalty attempt was awarded after a evaluate. Allan quickly made no mistake to fit his fourth penalty by way of the posts to provide his aspect the lead for the primary time within the 61st minute.
Five minutes later, nevertheless, France displayed their depth when Jalibert got here off the bench and made an immediate affect, scoring together with his first contact to safe the bonus level.