France 24 England 21

France confirmed that England's Rugby World Cup honeymoon is most definitely over as they held off a English fightback to collect the 2004 RBS Six Nations title, and the Grand Slam, courtesy of a 24-21 win at Stade de France in Paris.

This deciding match of the competition lived up to its top billing by delivering a pulsating, full-blooded encounter -- but England will rue the fact that they decided to join the party after half-time only.

England fans have grown accustomed to watching their side toy with their prey before going in for the kill late in the game, but it was France who did all the early toying in this game -- capitalising on some shoddy defence to rack up 21 points in the first period of the game.

England managed to find their natural second-half grit, and pulled themselves back into contention from 24-6 down -- but it was too little to late:  the horse had already bolted.

In the lead up to this game, France coach Bernard Laporte accused England of "being a machine" -- and that certainly looked to be the case, as Sir Clive Woodward's men seemed unable to power up in time, and were unable to fathom the sheer artistry of the early French raid.

Laporte's scathing remark was not the only one made prior to "le crunch", and tensions were visible on the pitch -- with Imanol Harinordoquy and Lawrence Dallaglio soon locked in an embrace unbefitting of the City of Love.

The England skipper had taken offence to his opposite number's off-side position, and Irish referee Alain Rolland agreed.  Bath youngster Olly Barkley duly stepped up to open the scoring after only two minutes, but his effort sailed wide.

The thought of playing an England side that actually missed goal-kicks seems to inspire the French, and they pushed forward, confounding the English defence with some outstanding running lines.

France had pin-pointed England's line-out for attention prior to the fixture, but it was a poor white scrum that led to the first points of the game.

England's pack were penalised for popping up the scrum in their 22 and scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili stepped up to finally get the scoreboard ticking off after 21 minutes.

France wasted no time consolidating their lead.  After a brilliant break by strapping centre Yannick Jauzion put England's defence in disarray, fly-half Frédéric Michalak was quickly in position to put in a high kick into the corner which found Harinordoquy lurking in acres on space.

With a safe bounce, the big No.8 cooly collected the ball to touch down a simple unconverted try.

France continued to pin the English back, and were soon rewarded with a penalty after Dawson was adjudged to be off-side at the scrum, and Yachvili had no trouble adding three more points.

Finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, England attempted to break out with ball in hand, but a poor Trevor Woodman pass allowed Pepito Elhorga to intercept and race behind England's startled defence.

England manage to pull down the runaway winger, but were forced to kill the ball and Yachvili punished them with another successful place-kick.

Barkley finally opened England's account with a penalty on the stroke of half-time, but English joy was to be shortlived.

Straight from the re-start, Yachvili gathered at the base of a ruck to find no one home on England's narrow side, much to the dismay of the grounded England scrum-half Dawson.  Following a neat chip and gather he was lining up a conversion from the touchline.

England gathered in a huddle as Yachvili's conversion sailed between the up-rights, and Dallaglio's words were readily understandable to anyone within 100 yards.

France began the second half looking very sure of themselves -- with Michalak using his boot to pin back the visitors.

England needed an early score after the break, which Barkley did via a penalty goal, but another Yachvili penalty cancelled it out and left the score at 24-6.

The game looked beyond England's grasp now, but Woodward played his ace by throwing on Mike Catt in place of the anonymous Will Greenwood to try and inspire some attacking.

Catt -- as he has done in the past -- answered the call by setting up a move which ended with winger Ben Cohen crashing over in the corner.

The Bath playmaker worked the ball wide after the pack had managed to turn over the ball following a rare mistake from Yachvili.  Cohen found himself on the end of the move and used the space and his imposing frame to crash over for his score.

Barkley's conversion was off target and England trailed by 13 with 28 minutes to play.

Yachvili soon missed a penalty chance to increase the French lead, and Barkley showed the tide was slowly turning by converted a kick with eight minutes remaining.

With five minutes to play, England lock Ben Kay managed to wrench the ball free of Christophe Dominici with a big hit, and the ball was worked wide to Josh Lewsey, who did well to cut inside the last defender to score.

Barkley had finally found his range, and his conversion narrowed the deficit to three points -- but despite a frantic finale the visitors could not come up with any more points, leaving France to celebrate a well-deserved Grand Slam and the English to rue what could have been ...

Man of the match:  This was definitely a game of two halves, with some inspired performances from both sides.  Scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili had a stormer, but it was centre Yannick Jauzion who showed France the gaps.  The centre's running lines made a mockery of England's fabled defensive patterns, and his face will haunt the minds of England's coaches for weeks to come.

Moment of the match:  This game was always going to be about English beef against French flair -- and nothing exemplified that more than English tighthead prop Phil Vickery's massive hit on French No.7 Olivier Magne.  The tackle lifted English morale, but Magne bounced up onto his feet, whilst Vickery limped away to receive attention to a head injury.  From that moment on it was clear that whatever England tried, France would come out smelling like roses.

Villain of the match:  The sight of Sir Clive Woodward coming down to the touchline to argue an irrelevant point concerning the position of his replacements with officials was pretty ugly -- but we cannot add to the England coach's woes by handing him this award.  Instead, We'll push it under Phil Vickery's door for his late tackle on Damien Traille that almost ended the centre's game.

The Teams:

France:  1 Pieter De Villiers, 2 William Servat, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 4 Fabien Pelous (c), 5 Pascal Pape, 6 Serge Betsen Tchoua, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 10 Frederic Michalak, 11 Christophe Dominici, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 13 Damien Traille, 14 Pepito Elhorga, 15 Nicolas Brusque
Reserves:  David Auradou, Yannick Bru, Jean-Jacques Crenca, Clement Poitrenaud
Unused:  Thomas Lievremont, Pierre Mignoni, Julien Peyrelongue

England:  1 Phil Vickery, 2 Steve Thompson, 3 Trevor Woodman, 4 Ben Kay, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Richard Hill, 7 Joe Worsley, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (c), 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Olly Barkley, 11 Ben Cohen, 12 Will Greenwood, 13 Mike Tindall, 14 Josh Lewsey, 15 Jason Robinson
Reserves:  Mike Catt, Steve Borthwick, Julian White
Unused:  Martin Corry, Andy Gomarsall, Mark Regan, James Simpson-Daniel

Attendance:  80000
Referee:  Rolland a.

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Yachvili D. 1, Harinordoquy I. 1
Conv:  Yachvili D. 1
Pen K.:  Yachvili D. 4

England
Tries:  Lewsey O.J. 1, Cohen B.C. 1
Conv:  Barkley O.J. 1
Pen K.:  Barkley O.J. 3