France breeze past hapless Wallabies in Rugby World Cup warm-up

Winger Damian Penaud scored twice as Rugby World Cup hosts France eased past Australia 41-17 in Paris on Sunday in both sides' final warm-up game before the tournament.

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Penaud crossed within the space of 20 minutes during the second half for Les Bleus, who were never really threatened by the Wallabies.

France open the World Cup by welcoming three-time winners New Zealand to the Stade de France on 8 September, a day before Australia face Georgia at the same venue.

Matthieu Jalibert started at flyhalf for the home side in a line-up which is also expected to face the All Blacks early next month.

Lock Will Skelton captained the Wallabies for the first time as they looked for their maiden victory in four games under Eddie Jones.

After two minutes, Australia flyhalf Carter Gordon missed a penalty from 45m in overcast conditions in northern Paris.

Things worsened for the Melbourne Rebels playmaker on just his fifth Test appearance as Les Bleus centre Jonathan Danty crashed through him to open the scoring after a flat Antoine Dupont pass.

France fullback Thomas Ramos slotted the conversion to make it 7-0 before the visitors then responded.

Gordon helped set-up winger Mark Nawaqanitawase in the corner but 22-year-old flyhalf missed the conversion.

By the interval, Ramos had pushed his side's advantage to 16-5 with three penalties as Gordon failed with another attempt.

Despite the lead, France looked sluggish compared to a majority of their performances since Fabien Galthie took over as head coach in December 2019.

Galthie reacted by changing his front five after 48 minutes and was rewarded shortly after as replacement lock Cameron Woki stole a