England pulled out a fine performance to defeat France 26-18 at Twickenham on Sunday, keeping their Six Nations hopes alive and ending French hopes of a Grand Slam in the process.
Did the chariot ever swing as low and as sweetly as it did on this sunny Sunday in London? It will go down as a great England victory, because it was so unexpected, such a contrast with the performance against Italy and the humiliation against Ireland -- and it was so comprehensive.
France were completely outplayed. It started up front and then filtered backwards all the way to the fullback. They were made to look docile, clumsy, lethargic and planless.
Their backs who were expected to run rings around ageing Mike Catt and slow Mike Tindall, but the visitors fumbled, plodded across field and never once looked like creating a try.
England never let them off the hook and have now thrown the Six Nations wide open with each of Ireland, France and England beaten once -- and their next opponents are all in the bottom half of the championship.
The England pack, beaten in Dublin, won hands down in London. Early on they started their pick-'n-go to take the battle to the French eight. They mauled well and stirred the crowd with their mauling. They scrummaged well and competed in the line-out and at the tackle. They, in a word, ruled possession, leaving tatty scraps for the French. And tatty scraps do not make a banquet.
The spark in the backs pretty well all came from England. True David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Vincent Clerc and Pierre Mignoni had good moments but not even when Clerc and Marty got the ball to the English line was there confidence of a try and in any case Raphaël Ibañez lost the ball forward.
Those little moments were nothing like what Toby Flood (off a chip and catch), Josh Lewsey, Mike Catt, Shane Geraghty and Jason Robinson managed. Nothing like.
England had the game in thrall and the French made no manful effort to liberate themselves. At no stage was there any French suavity or elan. They just were not there.
London's England looked nothing like Dublin's England -- a fact that must bring huge relief to the whole of the kingdom. Two tries to nil speaks more loudly than the eight points' difference. It must be a huge relief to those who chose the team.
Martin Corry was an inspiration at lock. Toby Flood, and then Shane Geraghty, performed with confidence and competence. Mike Catt, after a dainty start, got right into the game, steadying things and producing the electric moment when his 35-year-old legs broke, kept him upright and produced England's first try.
The scoring in the first half was fairly genteel -- four kicks to three in France's favour.
Tim Payne held on and David Skrela scored with a long kick. Skrela hurt an ankle soon afterwards and was replaced by young Lionel Beauxis at half-time. Not that that was a reason for losing, but Beauxis was noticeably unable to give his backs any direction. The cross-field running started with him.
Serge Betsen, who was ineffective in a beaten pack, was penalised for diving in at a tackle/ruck and Flood sent the penalty soaring over from just inside the French half. That must have been great for his confidence.
Skrela kicked a second when the touch judge reported Corry for using his boot on a player away from the ball and a third when Flood was penalised at a tackle/ruck. That made it 9-3 to France after 21 minutes and it seemed that, despite England's dominance France were going at some stage to burst out into Six Nations Champions with another Grand Chelem.
France then did a funny thing. They had a penalty just outside their 22 on their right and for some reason Dimitri Yachvili tapped, pivoted and kicked way across the field towards his left. Strettle got the ball and started running -- fast and deceptively strong for one so slight and pale. That may have been a spark for England. "We can run at these fellows if we run straight."
When Olivier Milloud was off-side Flood made it 9-6 but then made it 12-6 when George Chuter went into a tackle at the wrong angle. A minute later Sébastien Chabal, who had a poor game as England shut him down and proved that he was not as strong as he looks, held on at a tackle and Flood made the half-time score 12-9. England actually had two other chances from penalty goals. Flood was just off target with one long one and just short with another from inside his own half.
After mauling from a line-out England bashed and bashed at the French line and got close but the French rushed them back to beyond their own 22 and the chance looked dead. Suddenly phoenix Catt brought it to life as he sliced past Ibañez and into Clément Poitrenaud who decided to meet the old man chest on. But Catt stayed firm in the conflict, turned and passed the ball perfectly to Flood on his left and the tall fly-half went sweeping round for a try at the posts. The game had been broken open. England led for the first time, 16-12 after 48 minutes.
Sweet Chariot rose up into the Twickenham air. The faithful, who had barely dared to hope, suddenly gathered belief. "Coming for to carry me home."
Annoyingly that man Yachvili, who had been an instrument in France's last three wins over England, kicked a penalty when Tom Rees got a rough one at a tackle and another when Tindall played a man without the ball. 18-16 to France with 23 minutes to play. Were the chariot's wheels wobbling?
Flood went limping off with a sore knee at this stage and on came Shane Geraghty.
Robinson had a good run as Catt played back to him coming off his wing but Lionel Nallet nailed him.
Tindall had a chance as he made the best of a bad pass but when he chipped Clerc had no difficulty in beating him to the ball.
Then Strettle broke the game apart as he attacked from deep racing with speed and strength over acres of French territory from just inside France's half to close to the their line. England attacked, Imanol Harinordoquy went off-side and Geraghty calmly score his first points in international rugby.
England led 19-18 at this stage but were in fact much further ahead than one point. They were well on top.
Yachvili kicked downfield, a feeble kick and Geraghty ran onto it and with it, racing from 30 metres out to within 10 metres of the French line. Falling in a tackle he bowled the ball back to his left over Catt's head but there was Tindall, stretching out, getting a hand to the ball, holding the ball and plunging over for the try. Geraghty converted. 26-18 with eight minutes left to play.
At no time did the clumsy French look like scoring in those eight minutes. A knock-on produced a scrum to England and Shaun Perry hoofed the ball into the crowd for the final whistle.
England's team and supporters were joyful, the rest of the rugby world surprised.
Pity about work tomorrow.
Man of the Match: They were all Englishmen and if one were true it should probably be the Tight Five, but if we are, invidiously in a team game, to select an individual then Tom Rees would be the loose forward choice, loyal Martin Corry the tight forward and amongst the backs the man who above all sparked England's running belief -- David Strettle.
Moment of the Match: It has to be Mike Catt's break that led to Toby Flood's try -- for the belief it gave.
Villain of the Match: Nobody at all.
The scorers:
For England:
Tries: Flood, Tindall
Cons: Flood, Geraghty
Pens: Flood 3, Geraghty
For France:
Pens: Skrela 3, Yachvili 3
The teams:
England: 15 Josh Lewsey, 14 Jason Robinson, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Mike Catt (captain), 11 David Strettle, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Tom Rees, 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Martin Corry, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 Stuart Turner, 18 Louis Deacon, 19 Magnus Lund, 20 Shaun Perry, 21 Shane Geraghty, 22 Mathew Tait.
France: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 David Marty, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Christophe Dominici, 10 David Skréla, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Sébastian Chabal, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Serge Betsen, 5 Jérôme Thion, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Pieter de Villiers, 2 Raphaël Ibañez (captain), 1 Olivier Milloud.
Replacements: 16 Sébastian Bruno, 17 Nicolas Mas, 18 Pascal Papé, 19 Imañol Harinordoquy, 20 Pierre Mignoni, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Cédric Heymans.
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Touch judges: Alain Rolland (Ireland), Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Television match official: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor: Steve Hilditch (Ireland)
No comments:
Post a Comment