A stern decision by the Irish referee Alain Rolland, who reacted to Sam Warburton's 18th minute tackle on Vincent Clerc by dismissing the Wales captain for dangerous play, gave the men in red a mountain too much to climb as they attempted to reach their first Rugby World Cup final.
Trailing by 9-3 to the boot of Morgan Parra with almost an hour gone, Wales refused to submit and closed to within a point of the French thanks to a try by Mike Phillips. A man down for an hour, they dominated the second half but were let down by their kickers, the last of whom, Leigh Halfpenny, fell narrowly short with an attempt from the halfway line four minutes from time.
In every other respect, whether with 15 men or 14, Wales were the braver, more adventurous and more accomplished side, and France can consider themselves extremely fortunate to be in the final once again.
Wales had been looking for a chance to extend an early lead given to them by James Hook's eighth-minute penalty and had just enjoyed their best moment with ball in hand — a scything break across France's 22m line, involving Jamie Roberts and Shane Williams, ending with a wayward pass – when Warburton upended Clerc near the halfway line.
The Welshman certainly executed the first half of a spear tackle as he turned Clerc upside down, but seemed to have let go of his opponent well before the winger hit the ground, taking the impact on the back of his neck and his shoulders. Immediately France's players showed their anger and the Wales captain was trudging to the sidelines, there to be consoled by Adam Jones, who had left the field after 10 minutes with a leg injury.
The sport's rulers are, of course, quite right to try and eradicate the spear tackle from the game, and the nature of the occasion should have no effect on the referee's decision on such an offence, but to many this will have seemed a marginal call by Rolland.
Inevitably the mood of the match changed utterly while Wales regrouped and tried to work out how best to defend their 3-0 lead. Their cause would have been helped had Hook, replacing the injured Rhys Priestland, succeeded with two more penalties in the first half. Instead it was Morgan Parra, preparing to take his kicks against the ugly sound of booing from the Welsh fans, who put over a pair of attempts to give France a 6-3 advantage at the break.
The second half was only seven minutes old when Stephen Jones replaced Hook at fly-half, but the old warhorse had been on the field only a matter of seconds when Paul James was penalised for pulling down a rolling maul, giving Parra the opportunity to maintain his perfect record to widen the gap to six points.
Suddenly underpowered in the scrum and undermanned in defence, it was apparent that Wales would depend for any chance of recovery on the ability of Phillips, Roberts, Toby Faletau and George North, their most powerful ball-carriers, to drive holes in the French cover. With 58 minutes gone Phillips finally succeeded in making a lethal incursion as he burst around a scrum close to the line, evaded Pascal Papé's attempted tackle and touched down. Disappointingly, Jones's attempted conversion hit the outside of the upright.
Wales remained on the front foot until the end, but were unable to manoeuvre Stephen Jones close enough to the posts a final, unrequited sequence of two dozen phases.
