Wallabies ease past lacklustre France

Australia produced their most impressive performance yet under new coach Robbie Deans with a record-breaking 40-10 victory over France at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.

A second-half try double from replacement back Ryan Cross capped off a dominant display as the hosts stormed to their biggest-ever win against Les Bleus in the 38th meeting between the two nations.

Matt Giteau was superb throughout, kicking eight from eight with the boot and delivering the final ball for each of the Wallabies' four tries.

Australia opened their account in the fourth minute when Giteau slotted a difficult penalty goal from out wide before landing a pin-point cross-field kick to Peter Hynes, who crossed untouched for his first Test try, three minutes later.

The hosts continued to dominate proceedings and convert pressure into points as Giteau landed a further three penalty goals to stretch the advantage out to 19-0 at the half-hour mark.

The onslaught continued in the 36th minute when James Horwill completed the Wallabies' best attacking movement of the match to make it 26-0.

But Horwill's night came to a painful end soon after when the match erupted into an all-in brawl. The big Queenslander bore the brunt of the visitors' frustrations and emerged from the middle of the pack looking like a beaten prize-fighter.

To add insult to injury, the French were awarded the penalty in front and opted to take the points to head in at the interval trailing 26-3.

It was all France after the restart but when Cross scored the first of his two second-half tries with 23 minutes remaining, all hope of a French revival vanished.

Cross bagged his double after 67 minutes and Giteau's conversion made it 40-3 with 11 minutes to play, and although Francois Trinh-Duc scored a late consolation try, it was too little too late for Les Bleus.