Four-some France crush Italy

France thumped Italy 46-20 at the Stade de France in Paris to move within one win of Grand Slam glory in the 2010 RBS Six Nations.

Les Bleus turned on the style in front of their own fans to run in six tries, centre David Marty helping himself to two of them during a one-sided first half.

The visitors did manage two late tries themselves - through Carlo del Fava and Pablo Canavosio - but were well beaten in the French capital.

The result means only England - who head across the Channel next weekend - stand in the way of a clean sweep for Marc Lievremont's powerful side.

Spectacle

After the disappointing spectacles at Croke Park and Murrayfield on Saturday, France produced a Sunday sermon that preached to their rivals just how you can win without having to endlessly kick the ball away.

Italy, who came into the game off the back of a win over Scotland, had conceded just three tries in the tournament before kick-off but saw their defensive line breached twice inside the opening quarter.

Francois Trinh-Duc had already sliced a drop goal attempt wide when Imanol Harinordoquy crossed to break the deadlock after six minutes.

The number eight's first try in Paris for three years came courtesy of a sniping break from scrum-half Morgan Parra, who added the easy conversion and also an 11th minute penalty on his way to a personal haul of 16 points.

As if life wasn't already tough enough with a full complement of players, Italy found themselves down to 14 when Gonzalo Garcia was yellow-carded for unfairly blocking Marc Andreu as the winger went to chase his own kick.

The centre - who had only just returned to the game following a blood injury - had to sit and watch on as his side leaked 12 points while he was off.

Simply in survival mode, Italy shot themselves in the foot with a terrible line-out that led to a turnover. Spotting space out wide, France worked the ball from right to left before Marty burst through a huge gap to grab his first of the day.

The centre showed he could fill the sizeable void left by the absence of Mathieu Bastareaud, benched to nurse a calf niggle before being unleashed in the closing stages, with a second eight minutes later.

Harinordoquy set the man from Perpignan away to the right corner, though it had been the sublime Clement Poitrenaud who had created the opening by proving there are some full-backs who don't mind running from deep.

Italy coach Nick Mallett decided to haul off scrum-half Tito Tebaldi after half-an-hour before Mirco Bergamasco got the visitors on the board with a penalty. With a 22-3 lead, opposite number Lievremont had the luxury of resting some of his starters in the second half with one eye on six days time.

Diminutive Andreu

However the host of changes did not lead to a let-up in the scoring, Parra and Bergamasco trading penalties before the diminutive Andreu grabbed a try his wholehearted performance merited from a set move off line-out ball.

The scorer turned provider for the fifth French try, the 5ft 5" speedster bursting clear before offloading to the supporting Yannick Jauzion, who had just enough skill and speed to squeeze his way to the try-line.

Some weak Italian tackling led to another score, this time for replacement Alexandre Lapandry, and with 15 minutes to go France looked on course to hit their European rivals for a half-century for the second successive season.

Yet, with nothing to lose, Italy suddenly decided to play their opponents at their own game, leading to two superb tries in the space of just four minutes.

Del Fava capped a flowing move that saw the ball sent through several pairs of hands to get the first before fellow substitute Canavosio, who had come on to replace Tebaldi, did it all on his own for the second.

Bergamasco converted both to give the final score a much better look for the Italians. By that stage, though, the only thing on French minds was England.