France winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey scored two tries and set up two more as France beat the Wallabies in a high-scoring clash in Paris on Saturday.
The 48-33 victory secured a top seed for Les Bleus at the draw for the 2027 World Cup.
Bielle-Biarrey proved his class in a sluggish display from the Six Nations champions.
“At the end there’s a significant difference in the score,” France head coach Fabien Galthie told TF1. “Despite the problems, the team managed to get organised and score a lot a of tries against an energetic Australian team.”
The defeat meant out-of-form World Cup hosts Australia suffered a first winless European tour since 1958 and their record 10th loss in a year.
“It’s reflective of a lot of the games on this tour,” Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt told reporters. “We’ve been in every game at half-time. And we haven’t finished them off well enough.”
Galthie recalled Gael Fickou in midfield, with locks Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou the other changes from last Saturday’s turgid win over Fiji.
Schmidt, who will step down after three games next July, was forced into two changes on the eve of the game with flyhalf Carter Gordon and hooker Billy Pollard ruled out with injury, a week on from the record defeat to Ireland.
Inexperienced Tane Edmed took over the key playmaking role while Matt Faessler replaced Pollard, with 35-year-old playmaker James O’Connor released back to his club.
Faessler took no time at all to have an impact, bundling over after less than three minutes to make it 5-0 to the visitors and stunning the crowd at a chilly Stade de France, where the temperature dropped to 1°C. Edmed though missed his conversion.
By the half-hour mark the sides were level at 12-12 as Wallabies prop Angus Bell charged over either side of tries from home centre Nicolas Depoortere and fullback Thomas Ramos.
Edmed also missed a penalty, before Bielle-Biarrey proved why he was shortlisted for the World Rugby player of the year award – won by Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx.
Bielle-Biarrey caught a Damian Penaud pass on the 50m line before collecting his own chip kick to slide over and Ramos’ extras made it 19-12 after 32 minutes.
He is inevitable! Louis Bielle-Biarrey scores with his signature move!
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— Quilter Nations Series (@QuilterNations) November 22, 2025
The visitors stayed in the game thanks to France’s poor discipline, conceding eight penalties in the first half, and went in at the break with the score 19-19 after Faessler’s second try.
With a quarter of the match remaining, Galthie’s side had a 27-26 advantage after Ramos kicked a penalty and Depoortere scored his second, thanks to another clinical Bielle-Biarrey assist.
Visiting fullback Max Jorgensen set up a tense last 20 minutes, sliding over before Bielle-Biarrey’s second try.
The 22-year-old winger’s almost-perfect display was capped off with eight minutes to go, when he glided over after a superb 40m break by replacement centre Kalvin Gourgues on his Test debut.
It took Bielle-Biarrey and his iconic red scrum hat’s Test try tally to 20 in 22 appearances since his international bow in 2023.
Ramos added the conversion to make it 41-26 before late tries from Australia hooker Josh Nasser and France hooker Maxime Lamothe.
Photo: Franco Arland/Getty Images
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