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Laporte rues missed chance

Laporte comes to terms with the semi-final defeat

French Coach Bernard Laporte singled out one specific moment of his side's World Cup semi-final defeat as the turning point in the game.

France held a narrow one-point lead ten minutes into the second half when it seemed they would extend their lead through Vincent Clerc, in the end they were agonisingly short of a try that could have swung the balance of the game.

A desperate diving tap tackle from replacement flanker Joe Worsley halted the Toulouse wing with the line at his mercy. He managed to offload to Sebastian Chabal but England scrambled back and hauled him down inches from the line before snuffing out the danger.

"That was our chance," said Laporte, who will take up a role as a sports minister in the French government after the World Cup finishes next week.

"If we had scored that try we would have won the match, but we didn't.

Laporte always knew that such a game would come down to the smallest details, as France failed to avenge their 2003 World cup semi-final defeat against England.

"Semi-finals always come down to little things. That one came down to nothing," he added.

"The England team were strong but we expected this kind of match."

With France and England having played each other four times now in 2007 England have won two, and France have won two. But England's wins both came in competitive tournaments, the Six Nations and the World Cup, where as France only managed wins in the World Cup warm-ups.