Second-half tries by debutant lock Thibaud Flament and hooker Peato Mauvaka and superb goalkicking by Melvyn Jaminet has helped France to a 29-20 victory over a battling Argentina in a typically intense clash in the Stade de France.
Flament was playing flyhalf in the fifth team of England's Loughborough University five years ago, but on Sunday (NZ time) he was the toast of Paris after his excellent score broke through a determined Puma defence early in the second half.
Argentina were leading 10-9 at the time after a first-half Tomas Cubelli try, but Flament's score was followed by a second try for Mauvaka to put the hosts clear.
Argentina showed terrific spirit to launch a series of attacks in the last 10 minutes and closed the gap with a Mateo Carreras try but France had the last word with Jaminet's fifth penalty.
"The balance is positive but we struggled to keep the ball and they made it tough in the first half," says captain Antoine Dupont.
"Once we managed that we put them in difficulty, but there's room for improvement."
France had the best of the opening quarter and led 6-0 after two penalties from classy fullback Jaminet, but Argentina hit back with a try out of the blue after 22 minutes.
Emiliano Boffelli missed a penalty attempt but Pablo Matera charged down Matthieu Jalibert's subsequent 22 drop out and, after he was hauled down just short, Cubelli scooped up the ball to score under the posts, with Boffelli converting for a 7-6 lead. Jaminet edged France 9-7 ahead with his third penalty, but then missed a relatively easy fourth just before the break - only his second miss from 20 attempts in his fledgling international career.
France had hoped to find some creative spark by playing Romain Ntamack as a second distributor outside Jalibert, but it was the Puma backline that started to click, earning a penalty that Bofelli landed to restore his side's lead.
It lasted only a couple of minutes however, as 6ft 8in (2.03m) lock Flament, who had an excellent all-round debut, ran a student flyhalf's line onto a Jalibert pass to send the home fans wild.
Another great combination sent scrumhalf Dupont scampering down the line but his score was ruled out for an earlier knock-on. Argentina defended desperately to stay in the game and were rewarded with another Bofelli penalty to bring them back to 16-13 down midway through the half.
However, France's replacements brought even more intensity and a mighty shove splintered an Argentina scrum to earn another penalty for Jaminet for a 19-13 lead.
France's relentless pressure eventually told again as Jalibert popped a pass off the ground to rampaging replacement hooker Mauvaka for their second try.
France were forced into some desperate and impressive defending in the last 15 minutes and though Carreras scored late on and another try was ruled "held up", Jaminet's fifth penalty glossed a deserved win.
France next face Georgia ahead of their showdown with New Zealand, while Argentina, who have now lost seven in a row after their clean sweep of defeats in the Rugby Championship, play Italy. "We hate losing," says Pumas skipper Julian Montoya.
"We conceded too many penalties at the breakdown and we weren't very precise in attack, we could have created more tries. But there are no excuses, we just need to get better next week."
Boks score come-from-behind win over Welsh
South Africa has mauled their way over for a late try to snatch a narrow 23-18 victory over Wales at a rain-soaked Principality Stadium to begin their autumn international tour on a winning note.
Malcolm Marx scored the only try of the match with seven minutes remaining as the World Cup holders came from behind to take the lead for the first time in the test and record their first victory in Cardiff in eight years.
They were 18-15 behind after the two teams had traded penalties throughout a bruising contest with Dan Biggar kicking six out of six for his side.
Handre Pollard put over four penalties for South Africa, with a long-range contribution from his own half by Frans Steyn and an additional three points on the final whistle for Elton Jantjies.
The 34-year-old Steyn, who came on early as an injury substitute, was named man-of-the-match not only for his long-range kicking but also several exciting line breaks.
Wales led 12-9 at halftime as South Africa struggled to get their mauls going and were poor with their box kicking.
Wales looked threatening on the few occasions they got the ball out wide, especially to their explosive wingers Josh Adams and Louis Rees-Zammit.
There was only a single scrum in the first half but South Africa won several penalties from setpieces in the second as their forward power began to tell.
But they continued to give away penalties as Wales kept themselves in the lead with Biggar making it 18-15 in the 65th minute.
A minute before that, Wales had a one-man advantage out wide with substitute Liam Williams in a good position to score when a spectator ran onto the field and disrupted the move.
"You don't want to see that in a game, but there was nothing that the match officials could do about that," says Wales coach Wayne Pivac.
South Africa won a penalty within easy range to tie the game in the 72nd minute, but gambled on kicking for a lineout instead of seeking to level the score.
It was from the lineout that Marx crashed over at the back of a driving maul that steamrolled the home defence to snatch victory near the end.
"It came down to just a couple of mistakes in the end," says Pivac.
His South African counterpart Jacques Nienaber says: "It was good to get one under the belt but we knew it would be a grind."
In other international tests on Sunday morning, Ireland beat Japan 60-5 and England topped Tonga 69-3.
Reuters
