Wales coach Warren Gatland admitted he was preparing his farewell speech as Wales trailed France with six minutes left in their World Cup quarter-final but instead he can now work on his semi-final pep-talk after his team snatched a thrilling victory.
Gatland is stepping down following the World Cup after 12 years in charge and would have been hugely frustrated if his last game had been a defeat and a somewhat limp performance against a French team reduced to 14 men for the last 30 minutes.
“I have to say I was starting to think about what I’d be saying to TV, to you guys,” he told a news conference after Ross Moriarty’s converted 74th-dramatic try secured a 20-19 victory.
“You start going through lots of different emotions. I thought France played exceptionally well. They’ve made a lot of progress in five months and I think the best team lost.”
The New Zealander said he was relieved to get to halftime at 19-10 down after France had been full of attacking verve in the first period.
Gatland said that one message was that they had to score first, which they did via a Dan Biggar penalty in the 54th minute, but by then the nature of the game had changed with the red card for French lock Sebastien Vamihaamahina for elbowing Aaron Wainwright in the face.
France, though, defended superbly and were still leading 19-13 as the clock ticked down.
“I’m really proud of these players, they never give up, they just keep fighting and fighting. We didn’t play our best tonight but it’s testament to this group of men that we came through,” added Gatland.