France's record points scorer Frederic Michalak snared another harvest yesterday as his country opened their World Cup campaign with a clear 32-10 win over Italy.
The veteran fly-half set up the first try of the match for prop Rabah Slimani and licked 19 points to set up the important win.
Replacement prop Nicolas Mas scored France's only other try 11 minutes from time. That left them two tries short of a bonus point and already behind Pool D rivals Ireland.
"It was no easy. Italy were tenacious," said French coach Philippe Saint-Andre, who already knows he will leave at the end of the tournament.
"It was an important victory. Clearly we would have liked the four tries to get the bonus point which would have been the cherry on the cake. But it was a positive day."
Italy, thrashed 29-0 by France in the Six Nations tournament, were without talisman captain and No. 8 Sergio Parisse who was kept out by a leg injury sustained in a warm-up match against Wales.
There were few moments of inspiration from either side in a first half which ended with France 15-3 in front, all the points coming from penalties.
Michalak saw one 38-metre effort came back off the post before he made it 3-0 in the seventh minute.
France, in their change strip of red, appeared to have scored a try. But for the second day in a row at Twickenham, it was chalked off amid controversy involving the use of the television match official.
