Wales admit poor kicking led to downfall

While Welsh emotions remained raw on Sunday about the sending off of their inspirational captain Sam Warburton, Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards conceded that kicking played a major part in their 9-8 semi-final defeat by France the night before.

"Obviously goal kicks cost us quite dearly,'' Edwards said at a press conference. "One of the standards that put us apart from our opponents was the standard of our goal kicking and unfortunately we missed three kicks that we would normally get, and that was part of it."

The Welsh went into their first semi-final appearance since 1987 minus first-choice fly half Rhys Priestland, their top kicker, with a shoulder injury.

James Hook was his replacement and he was on the mark with his first from out on the left touchline to open the scoring, but he missed two more direct kicks later in the first half that would have put Wales in front at half-time.

Full back Leigh Halfpenny was just centimetres short with a penalty attempt from the halfway line with only five minutes remaining and France a single point ahead.

Parra's hot foot

The French, in contrast, were led by the hot foot of Morgan Parra. He slotted two penalties in a gritty first half - one from wide out on the left - and added another after the break to put France 9-3 ahead.

While kicking was one of issues facing the Welsh, they also had to play almost an hour with 14 players after Warburton was given his marching orders after 18 minutes for a tip tackle on wing Vincent Clerc.

The Welsh now have to regroup to play the loser of the semi-final between Australia and New Zealand in the bronze medal match on Friday.