Ireland won the Six Nations title after France beat a lacklustre England 22-16 in Paris on Saturday. JON CARDINELLI reports.
Earlier in the day, Ireland thumped Scotland 28-8 in Dublin to extend their lead at the top of the Six Nations log. That result saw England heading into the clash against France needing a bonus-point victory just to stay in the title race.
In the end, England never came close to realising their objective. France were physically superior for much of the contest and limited England to one try.
At no point in the first half did England look to force the issue. The score was 9-9 at half-time after the England goal-kickers and France scrumhalf Maxime Machenaud traded penalties.
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France broke the deadlock in the 48th minute. Anthony Watson produced a stunning tackle to stop Benjamin Fall from crossing in the left-hand corner. The officials, however, deemed the attempt to be high and proceeded to award the hosts a penalty try. Referee Jaco Peyper was almost apologetic when he showed Watson a yellow card.
Machenaud kicked his fourth penalty goal in the 63rd minute to stretch France’s lead to 10 points. With that, England’s Six Nations title hopes were well and truly dashed.
What followed was a mad scramble by England to salvage a winning result. Jonny May scored on the back of some enterprising play in the 73rd minute, and Owen Farrell nailed a difficult conversion.
France had the final say, though, with Lionel Beauxis bisecting the uprights in the 78th minute. France went on to claim their first victory over England in this ‘Le Crunch’ fixture since 2015.
England will be looking to deny Ireland a Grand Slam title when the two sides meet at Twickenham next week.
Eddie Jones’ side will play three Tests against the Springboks in June.
France – Try: Penalty try. Penalties: Maxime Machenaud (4), Lionel Beauxis.
England – Try: Jonny May. Conversion: Owen Farrell. Penalties: Farrell (2), Elliot Daly.
France – 15 Hugo Bonneval, 14 Benjamin Fall, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 11 Remy Grosso, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Marco Tauleigne, 7 Yacouba Camara, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 4 Paul Gabrillagues, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhelm Guirado (c), 1 Jefferson Poirot.
Subs: 16 Adrien Pelisse, 17 Dany Priso, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Kelian Galletier, 21 Baptiste Couilloud, 22 Lionel Beauxis, 23 Gael Fickou.
England – 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Jonny May, 13 Ben Te’o, 12 Owen Farrell (c), 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nathan Hughes, 7 Chris Robshaw, 6 Courtney Lawes, 5 Maro Itoje, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Jamie George, 1 Mako Vunipola.
Subs: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 James Haskell, 20 Sam Simmonds, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Jonathan Joseph, 23 Mike Brown.
Photo: Ian Langsdon/BackpagePix
