Saturday 19 February 2000

France 9 England 15

England produced a courageous performance on Saturday to beat France 15-9 in their Six Nations Championship match at the Stade de France.

England now look on course to finally reward coach Clive Woodward with a major title.

In a hard and gritty match, with England at one stage down to 13 men, both sides failed to score a try with England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson scoring all his team's points, taking his total to 206 in internationals, while French fullback Richard Dourthe kicked three penalties.

France pressured the England line late in the game without finding a way through.  "We knew coming here to the Stade de France that it was going to be very tough -- and that we'd have to give 110 percent," said elated but exhausted England captain Matt Dawson.

The French, who were given no room to play with their traditional flair, were shattered at the end.

Backline ace Christophe Dominici said:  "We're very disappointed as we worked hard to try and overcome them, but the tournament's not lost.  We've still got matches coming up against Scotland and Ireland and Italy.  We're going to have to go away now and come up with something different to what we did here today against this English team." Dourthe, who was given the kicking responsibility after the withdrawal of Christophe Lamaison on Monday, got France to within three points of the English within six minutes of the start of the second-half, kicking two penalties.

The English, who looked to be tiring after a sterling first-half when they had given as good as they got against a much-larger pack, started to make standard errors with Mike Catt ruining a try scoring opportunity when England had an overlap by serving a hospital pass out to winger Ben Cohen.

However, another French infringement, this time by the increasingly rattled scrum-half Fabien Galthie, gave England more breathing space as Wilkinson slotted the penalty between the posts from right in front of goal.

The French then came under a period of sustained pressure during which coach Bernard Laporte's demand for discipline and fair play was sorely tested.  Flanker Olivier Magne was extremely fortunate not to become the second French player to be sinbinned when he punched lock Garath Archer.

Laporte must have been steaming, however, when replacement Serge Bettsen was yellow-carded only a minute after coming on for foul play and Wilkinson converted the penalty to restore England's nine-point lead with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining.

With Laporte throwing on former captain Raphael Ibanez and Pieter de Villiers to bolster his tiring pack, England started to lose their edge and Dourthe landed another penalty to make it 15-9 with eight minutes to go.

Dourthe, making his 24th test appearance, was left red-faced and on his backside when he slipped taking a much easier chance a minute later after England lock Simon Shaw was given a yellow card.

Wilkinson, who tackled like a lion, had opened the scoring with a penalty in the 13th minute after persistent pressure forced the French into an infringement.

English winger Austin Healey almost forged a try out of nothing coming in off his wing to burst through the French centres but delayed his pass to hooker Phil Greening too long and was tackled five metres short of the line.

Wilkinson then added another penalty from 35 metres out halfway through, although the French sparked into life pouring on the pressure close to the England line but scrum-half Fabien Galthie was denied a try when the ball was ripped out of his arms as he crossed the line.

The French did finally look to have got on the scoreboard when Thomas Lombard touched down after a magical weaving run by Christophe Dominici, but Australian referee Stuart Dickinson ruled it out for what appeared to be a marginal forward pass.

Dickinson fell further out of favour with the French when he sin-binned massive French lock Olivier Brouzet for tripping flanker Richard Hill -- Wilkinson coolly converting the penalty to rack up 200 points in just 16 internationals.

The 20-year-old missed a far easier opportunity on the stroke of halftime but his chances in the second half were more limited as the French dominated territorially without being able to break through.

In the end, it was a victory that England merited.  "The English were stronger than us today," admitted French forward Olivier Magne.  "We were lacking strength.  We've got work to do."

The Teams:

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Marc Dal Maso, 3 Franck Tournaire, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Legi Matiu, 6 Abdelatif Benazzi, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Fabien Pelous (c), 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Thomas Castaignede, 11 Emile Ntamack, 12 Thomas Lombard, 13 David Venditti, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Richard Dourthe
Reserves:  Serge Betsen Tchoua, Pieter De Villiers, Raphael Ibanez, Thomas Lievremont
Unused:  Cedric Desbrosses, Stephane Glas, Christophe Laussucq

England:  1 Jason Leonard, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Garath Archer, 5 Simon Shaw, 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson (c), 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Mike Tindall, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Matt Perry
Reserves:  Martin Corry, Iain Balshaw
Unused:  Neil McCarthy, Andy Gomarsall, Alex King, Joe Worsley, Trevor Woodman

Attendance:  78000
Referee:  Dickinson s.

Points Scorers:

France
Pen K.:  Dourthe R. 3

England
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 4

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