However with 15 minutes to go Australia finally got some reward for their hard work as replacement Kim Wilson went over after some strong running by Tricia Brown and Butcher.
Tobie McGann kicked the conversion, but it was not to be the beginning of a comeback for Australia, the score remaining the same despite Sartini being sin-binned for the final minutes.
The result sets up an crucial final round of pool matches on Friday with France facing England and Australia needing to beat the USA to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
QUOTES
Australian coach Steve Hamson: “We didn’t work hard enough at the breakdown, we didn’t have our head in the game and we didn’t play what was in front of us. We need to get our heads more in the game.”
Australian captain Selena Worsley: “We let some off the ball infractions get to us and let the French team outmuscle us up front. We knew they would come at us hard, but our inexperience showed when reacting to situations.”
France coach Benoit Oszustowicz : “We will go away and look at the video of the England game earlier in the year, they will be very physical and we will need to defend like we did today as they are very quick and hard.”
France captain Estelle Sartini: “We defended very well, the Australians were very big physically and could have bullied us but we didn’t let that happen and we took the game to them.”