AUSTRALIA notched up their biggest-ever winning margin against France in a rugby union Test when they crushed the home side 24-3 at the Parc des Princes in Paris yesterday.
It was not their highest score - which remains the 48-31 win at Brisbane in 1990 - but it was their most emphatic, and was superbly engineered by Marty Roebuck.
Roebuck, recalled after last week's 16-13 defeat in the first Test in Bordeaux, scored all his side's first-half points as Australia built up a 13-3 lead.
The full-back finished off a sustained Wallaby attack three minutes from the interval and converted his try to add to the two penalties he had kicked earlier. Australian captain Michael Lynagh denied Roebuck a third when he chose to run the ball from in front of the posts.
But Roebuck followed up in the second half by kicking two more penalties before number eight Tim Gavin went over for the Wallabies' second try.
France's points came when Thierry Lacroix replied with a penalty right on half-time.