BBC Sportrugbyunion

England 34-10 France FT

606: DEBATE Discuss the action on 606

By Tom Fordyce

1700: So no record win for England, but England's best performance under Martin Johnson by several country miles. See you next weekend for a finale to look forward to all week.

1658: This from Tom Croft: "It's been a massive week. just a superb performance from the boys, and there's loads to come. The boys got the ball in hand, created space and there's a lot more to come."

1657: Smiles everywhere from England, as you'd expect. Martin Johnson looks strange when he's grinning, in the same way that Victoria Beckham does.

FULL TIME England 34-10

83 mins: Goode wastes it, kicking to no-one. Shame - he had men out wide there.

82 mins: England scrum in front of the posts, 20m out...

81 mins: Can England seal it with another try? They're going for it - phase after phase - 82 minutes now on the clock...

79 mins: The sun's sinking below the West Stand at Twickenham, and we're nearly done. England in possession midway inside their own half.

78 mins: The game is tailing away here - both sets of players are shattered. Brian Moore names TomCroft as his man of the match.

76 mins: Poor kick from Goode - he tries to find Cueto out wide but puts too much mustard on the hotdog and sends it straight into touch.

74 mins: Ouch. Tindall gets raked in the ruck and his shirt is as tattered as an old sail.

72 mins: Calamitous play from France, losing 20m in a flash through two poor passes to no-one. England press againbefore Medard boots clear.

70 mins: England suddenly break, Armitage scissoring through after Easter off-loads with one hand. Great tackle from Medard eight metres from the line, and the ball goes forward. Swing Low soars rounnd the stands again. Tait on for Monye.

69 mins: Bonnaire booms down the left, but England rip the ball out in the tackle to steal the turnover.

67 mins: Worsley's limping off, with Nick Kennedy coming on. Croft to revert to the back row.

66 mins: France have been liberated by that score. They're starting to fling the ball around with a certain abandon.

64 mins: TRY Malzieu England 34-10 France
England fall asleep from a scrum. Medard spots the overlap on the left and arrows a lovely mis-pass out to the wing, where Malzieu strolls over. Conversion missed again, and England have gone a little flat.

63 mins: England getting warned here after conceding their 12th penalty. "Next one goes in the bin," says the ref.

62 mins: Sheridan gets ticked off by the ref for failing to bind at the scrum. "Sort it out or we'll look at another solution," he's told, ominously.

From Ali via text: "Trapped in a hotel in Paris, can't find the match on hotel TV. Think the French have taken it of air in embarrassment."

61 mins: Scrappy breakdown ends with France winning a scrum in the left-hand corner.

60 mins: Vickery pinged for holding on. France kick for the corner.

59 mins: French scrum 35m from the England line. Starting to get over the gain-line, les touristes.

From Ryushinku on 606: "The sheer nerve of the French in scoring. I demand three tries and a drop goal in response."

56 mins: Changes for England - Hartley for Mears, Haskell for Shaw. Croft into the second row.

55 mins: TRY Szarzewski England 34-5 France
Finally un petit ray of sunshine for France. The forwards ruble to the line, and the hooker drives off low and fast to burrow over the whitewash. Parra blows the extras wide.

From Anon via text: "Oh me of little faith! Stuck shopping for my 3yr old daughter's shoes because I was too scared to watch it live. Serves me right..."

54 mins: France finally make progress, Hari battering through and then Traille skipping to within a sniff of the line. The ball goes wide and Monye knocks on deliberately to prevent the try. Naughty. Care on for Ellis.

51 mins: Two successive pens for England. They run them both, but Goode's ambitious chip is picked off. Shaw finds himself at fill-in full-back - it's that sort of day - and he gets swarmed. Not had a great day, the old unit.

48 mins: Sloppiness from both sides as everyone catches their breath. France make wholesale changes - Traille for Trinh-Duc, Fritz for Bastareaud, Bonnaire for Thion. Chabal to second row.

47 mins: Julian White on for Vickery - blood sub. Some stats for you, juste en cas: England's biggest win over France came in 1911, when they won 37-0 France. Biggest Six Nations win came in 2001, when it finished 48-19.

From largepi on 606: "What? Who? How? My brain hurts..."

44 mins: Swing Low swings out around the stands. All around, England fans are pinching themselves and looking in wonderment at the pint glasses in their hands.

41 mins: TRY Flutey England 34-0 France
You think I'm making this up, don't you? Jauzion drops the ball in England's 22, Goode flips it wide and Armitage is free, scything down the left like a missile. He flips inside to Flutey, and he sprints the final 30 metres to tumble and roll under the posts. Goode then misses horribly from the conversion, but almost no-one in the ground notices - they're either crying with joy or despair.

41 mins: France trudged back out of the tunnel for the second half. Hardly looks like rockets were stuck up derrieres.

From Aaron via text at Twickemham: "What's going on? Even Borthwick is playing well."

From Simon via text: "I can't believe it, I'm stuck in TopShop waiting for my daughter to spend her birthday money and England are playing France off the park."

From CountNefarious on 606: "Am I dreaming?"

1551: Quite extraordinary. Anyone predict that? Looks like Flood hurt himself in that last foray and has gone off, but the whole of Twickenham rises to the England team as they jog off the pitch and into dream-land.

HALF-TIME England 29-0 France

40 mins: TRY Worsley England 29-0 France
Oh my giddy aunts! Hoof downfield from Ellis into acres of space, Cueto sprints onto it and hacks on, Flood gathers but slips a yard out. England steam in, the ball goes wide - and this time Joe Worsley - yup - is there to trundle over in the corner.

37 mins: TRY Armitage England 24-0 France
England fans - can you believe your eyes? After more woeful play from France, England set up camp in the left hand corner. After four stunted drives the ball is spun out left - there's a double overlap, and Armitage has so much time he could write short story before going over.

34 mins: More England pressure ends with Flood trying a cheeky grubber through for Flutey to chase through - but Medard gathers just under his own sticks.

32 mins: Tindall gets lucky as a telegraphed pass out wide is snaffled by the marauding Malzieu. Monye is on hand to wrap the Frenchman up.

30 mins: This couldn't be more different from two weeks ago. France are unrecognisable from the mean machine that flattened Wales, while England have shown more invention in the first quarter than they did all match in Dublin.

28 mins: France getting slow ball again, just inside the England half. Hardi and Szar drive on, but that's a woeful pass from Trinh-Duc - that's going to no-one but the touch-judge.

25 mins: England switch to the four-man line-out and Borthwick takes the catch again. Easter takes the ball into contact before Ellis goes right - and only a marginal forward pass from Armitage stands in the way of a canter free down the line from Croft. France wobbling.

24 mins: There's almost a stunned silence around Twickenham. England are playing with a speed of thought and movement that hasn't been seen for months.

22 mins: TRY Flutey England 17-0 France
Another fantastic move from England - quick ball from the line-out, Cueto slices through in midfield off Flood's inside pass and Flutey is on his shoulder after Medard is forced to commit to the tackle. Easy conversion from in front of the posts. Did I just see Martin Johnson smile?

21 mins: Great aerial take from Armitage, the only man on the England team who knows all the words to La Marseillaise, having played for France U-16s.

19 mins: Super clearance kick from Trinh-Duc, from deep in his own 22 to the England 22.

From Anon via text: "In the back of a taxi from Shanghai airport to hotel. Can't get there quick enough. C'mon England!"

17 mins: PEN Flood England 10-0 France
Borthwick is sent backwards as he tries to rumble off the ruck, but Hari has already been pinged for offside - penalty 25m out, and Flood swings it over sans probleme.

15 mins: Good job from England at the breakdown, slowing the ball up and forcing another error. Knock-on from Thion, and England have the scrum. Easter getting some treatment for smash-related wounds.

13 mins: France pick and go just outside the England 22. Harinordoquy almost batters through but England then steal a crucial turnover. France definitely coming back into the game, though.

11 mins: ...and Parra wastes the pen, mis-kicking horribly to cheers from the stands.

From Sean Garvey on text: "Hey Tom - currently in the Amazonian city of Manaus and no chance to actually see the game! C'mon England! A few French staying in the same hostel so would be good to stick it up them. PS. I still have your Nepal Lonely Planet."

You took it with you to Manaus? Massive error...

10 mins: Flood and Worsley do a job on the scampering Parra, but Shaw comes in from the side like a fresh-faced debutant and gives away a pen in a kickable area.

7 mins: Monye absolutely toasts Malzieu on the outside before Medard hauls him down. Great run on his tournament debut, and England could get a lot of joy down the left.

5 mins: Basta again - and this time he goes straight through Flutey and Armitage before Cueto saves their bacon with a desperate challenge. Ooof.

3 mins: Basta tries to bash through but spills the ball in the tackle - the crowd enjoyed that. France win a pen deep after Flood is whistled for hands in the ruck, and that sets up a line-out just inside the England half.

1 min: TRY Cueto England 7-0 France
What a start that is - quick ball from England, Riki Flutey finds a perfect mis-match against Chabal to slice through on the left, and when he draws the last man Mark Cueto can sprint into the corner. He cuts back inside under the posts to gift Flood the extras on a plate.

1 min: Flood with the drop-out - we're off!

1500: Stirring version of La Marseillaise, lead by a warbling lady who I don't recognise. Apologies. It's not Jenkins or Church, obviously. And then it's GStQ, stately or slow, depending on your point of view.

1459: Now it's Borthwick's turn to get busy with the bellows. Pumped up like a juggernaut's tyres, the England skipper.

1458: Here they come - a slow stroll out that's meant to be a little David Sole at Murrayfield 1990, I'd imagine.

1456: The French players are out and huddling on the Twickenham turf. Four enormous St George's flags out on the pitch. Nallet's having a right yell at his boys. Probably asking them where England are.

From Alex on text: "I'm at Twickenham and atmosphere at the ground is amazing. What we need is for England to pass that ball down the line and we could have a great game."

1450: All about The Smash, the team selections for today. If Martin Johnson could have picked a Challenger tank, he would have done so, while Lievremont has ditched 14-stone 11-pound weakling Fulgence Ouedraogo for the behemoth combo of Chabal and Thion. Then there's the human wrecking-ball that is Mathieu Bastareaud. Even typing his name makes me shiver with fear.

1445: A little chat from Raphael Ibanez for you: "I'm reasonably confident. This team is desperate for more respect - they want to show the world of rugby that they can repeat the sort of performance they produced two weeks ago."

From eirebilly on 606: "Just getting over my hangover from yesterdays celebrations. I pick England to win this by 5 points. They really are due a big performance."

1435: A lucky omen for England: last year, after below-par performances against Wales and Italy, they went out as underdogs and spanked France 24-13 in their own back-yard. This year, after below-par performances against Wales and Italy...

1430: A few stats to get us underway, as tradition dictates: this is the 92nd meeting between these two sides, with England leading with 49 wins to 35. And while England have won just five of their last 14 matches, France have lost their last four away games.

1420: Afternoon all, and it's a super afternoon in south-west London - pale blue sky, watery spring sunshine, the Twickenham turf looking plush underfoot. No meteorological excuses for poor play out there today.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version