Bernard Le Roux gets to grips with Giovanbattista Venditti © Getty Images

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It was a game that will live short in the memory but France head into the final weekend with the slimmest chance of winning the Six Nations.The title will come down to points difference and the 29-0 victory for France in Rome will help their cause but it was a match of poor quality littered with errors.

Rugby purists are the fall guys. Whenever there is a dire spectacle played out in front of a crowd who are struggling to keep their increasingly heavy eyelids from finally succumbing to welcome relief, it is a game labelled suitable for those "purists". But even they will have struggled to maintain any sense of occasion during the error-strewn, scrappy, shower of a first-half. It was 40 minutes with 21 handling errors; as the rain pours down, offloads should be shelved but both teams persisted to the frustration of anyone who had the misfortune of watching it.

The game toyed with you: kick, pass, knock-on, hope, knock-on, stop, rinse and repeat. An advert for northern hemisphere this was not with France edging the eventual handling error stakes 19-18. What played out was the hosts attempting a staccato game plan without a kicker against the visitors, void of confidence and confused.

France fly-half Camille Lopez did well in the first 40 but then he was hauled off at half-time due to a knee injury for Jules Plisson. He played with confidence and Noa Nakaitaci's early run offered some hope for a free-flowing match but it came to nought.

And then came a light in the deluge of doom; Yoann Maestri's try following Scott Spedding's wonderful break and Loan Goujon's carry offered an olive branch to those who had dozed off. After that all France needed to do was go through the motions for the win with Thierry Dusautoir commanding throughout.

For the Italians it was that tired story of their inaccurate, ineffective goalkicking. In the preamble to the match there was a piece on Diego Dominguez; Italy have not had anyone fit to lace his boots since he retired. There could have been three points in it at half-time but instead it was the visitors who went into the break nine points to the good after Tommaso Allan and Luciano Orquera, their third choice fly-half who played due to injuries to Allan and Kelly Haimona, missed their kicks at the sticks.

It is a tale rolled out in every Six Nations and for a country that is so proud of their footballing heritage, their inability to knock the ball through two white posts is alarming. When they fell 19 behind France, at least that meant the option of an unlikely three points from kicking at the posts was dismissed in favour of the driving lineout. But even that valuable weapon which was so effective against Scotland was misfiring. They were a completely different team to the one who won at Murrayfield a fortnight ago.

It was a gross disservice to the titanic Sergio Parisse who broke the Italian caps record in what was his 112th appearance. Like in the other 111 matches, he put his body on the line but even he looked off the pace. The penalty he gave away in the first minute of the second-half summed up the Italian performance - frustration and quiet resignation. The sight of him walking off injured late on was miserable.

You suspect neither Philippe Saint-Andre nor Jacques Brunel will be in charge of their respective teams when they meet again in the championship next year. The latter cut a lone figure throughout and resembled a disgruntled exam invigilator.

For Saint-Andre, the win gives him a stay of execution and he will lead France into their match at Twickenham next weekend. The win in Rome means they retain the slimmest of hopes of winning the whole tournament. It is an unlikely eventuality and they are still some way off realising their vast potential as a team. Those artists Gael Fickou, Yoann Huget and Nakaitaci were seldom used.

Prior to their match in the 2016 Six Nations, they will meet again upon the heath of the pool stages in the World Cup. You hope for the good of the tournament, both have a transformation before then and the hurly-burly metamorphoses into a far more entertaining spectacle.