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Mon 12 Mar 2012 | 10:52
England defeat France in Paris in Six Nations classic

31
Comments

England beat France away from home for the first time since 2008 as they came away 24-22 winners in a classic Six Nations encounter in Paris on Sunday afternoon. A last minute dropgoal attempt from Francois Trinh-Duc fell short for the hosts.

In one of the more entertaining Six Nations games we've seen in recent times, Le Crunch turned out to be a classic battle that went right down to the wire as France fought back after England took an early lead. Two quickfire tries, first a great effort from Manu Tuilagi, then a Ben Foden try set up by Ben Morgan, gave England a 14-3 lead in the first half.

France chipped away and the second half was a far tighter affair. A fantastic try from Tom Croft then appeared to seal the deal for the English, but thanks to Julien Dupuy, Lionel Beauxis, and Morgan Parra, who all contributed points from the tee, and a Wesley Fofana try with 6 minutes left, we saw a thrilling finale to the game.

If Trinh-Duc's dropgoal attempt had just a meter more on it, it would have been the French celebrating, but instead England took a famous win in Paris, and still have a mathematical chance of winning the Six Nations.

"It's hard to come back against the English after such a bad start. We clawed back into contention thanks to our pride," said brilliant French number eight, Imanol Harinordoquy.

"The two turnovers did for us. Once again we came back into it and we didn't miss out by much. It's hard to beat the English once they get ahead," he added.

Posted By: Grant Constable

31 Comments

  • kadova
    9:43 PM 17/03/2012

    A question now: who said about Morgan Parra after he kicked the conversion for Wesley Fofana try "This is the most elegant left foot" ?

  • jimothy
    1:03 PM 15/03/2012

    Yes because in a rugby match you often see the 14 other players standing still whilst one player runs in a try!!!!!!!!!!!

    Next time watch the game closely and count how many players are just 'standing' on the field when the try is scored. That is not including those getting up off the ground or who have been in a previous phase of play or running to support. The try involved 4 players so almost a third of the team.

    Can you explain how to score a team try? Is it only a team try when every player on the field has touched the ball in a passage of play? Was Ashtons try against Australia a team try or individual brilliance by Youngsm Lawes and then Ashton for example? The ball was only touched by 3 players on the way to the tryline but what about the turnover tackle including other players?

    I'm just curious to know how you define a 'team' try?

    Tommy Bowes awesome try against France was one of individual brilliance but the rest of the team had to get the ball to him first!

  • pretzel
    8:08 PM 14/03/2012

    Nevermind...

  • stroudos
    12:45 PM 14/03/2012

    The "is there" on the end of my comment isn't meant as a question. If the ball goes backwards, it is not a knock-on.

  • pretzel
    12:29 PM 14/03/2012

    I meant deliberately knock the ball out of the air when the opposition is passing it...

  • pretzel
    12:28 PM 14/03/2012

    I don't know, that's why I am asking. I know if you knock it backwards if it passed to you then there is no offence, but if you deliberately knock the ball out of the air and it goes backwards then it seems a bit...wrong?!?

  • pretzel
    12:25 PM 14/03/2012

    I'd pick Parra over Dupuy anyway.. As for Rougerie, he is brilliant when he is on form... So maybe by some miracle he has suddenly got "on form". lol

  • stroudos
    10:40 AM 14/03/2012

    If you knock it backwards there is no offence, is there.

  • pretzel
    1:08 AM 14/03/2012

    Ah sorry, I didn't see that before, but definitely ridiculous if you ask me! How the referees can expect players to understand is ridiculous...

    The old saying "play to the referee" goes right out the window when the same referee gives two different out comes to the same infringement in the same game!!!

  • jimothy
    8:13 PM 13/03/2012

    You say individual tries however the first one alone proves this comment to be incorrect. If you look at the players involved 1) Ashton makes the tackle 2)Farrell picks up the ball off loads in the tackle to Dickinson 3) Dickinson pass to Manu who showed more pace than I thought he had. I would say that was team involvement! The other two I agree with you partially but the ball has to be won before you can score tries and that requires the team.

  • pretzel
    5:33 PM 13/03/2012

    Thanks for clearing things up regarding yellow cards Stroudos. A question though, is it an offence to knock it BACK or DOWN deliberately... Obviously an accidental knock on is a scrum, a deliberate knock on is a penalty... but I'm sure one of the incidents in one of the weekend games (not sure if it was this one) it appeared as though the player was trying to knock it BACK..(in fact I think it may have been Fofana).. So to clear things up, if you get in between to players passing it, is your only option to catch the ball, or can you bash it back to your teams side...?

  • stroudos
    5:00 PM 13/03/2012

    I think refs generally tend to be too harsh on the "deliberate" knock-on thing. I'm sure 8 times out of 10 the player is genuinely trying to make an interception - players could help themselves by putting two hands out so it looks much more like a catch attempt.

    Yellow cards usually only get shown when the knock-on prevents a clear try-scoring opportunity and I think that's the way it should be. The Sharples incident was on the halfway line, so even though France had a couple of players overlap I really don't think it qualifies as a try-scoring opportunity.

    If this had happened on the 5m line, fine, yellow card him, but it's wildly over-the-top in this instance.

  • stroudos
    4:55 PM 13/03/2012

    "Bring back Bastareaud! He could be a sweet combo with Fofana."

    That sounds dangerous! And totally agree, Rougerie's having a period of awful form - and attitude. Bastareaud, meanwhile, looks like he's having a bit of a resurgence at Toulon.

  • stroudos
    4:49 PM 13/03/2012

    Classic. He also sounds gutted about it, like "Go on then, if you have to, you shit".

  • colombes
    3:48 PM 13/03/2012

    put your glasses. who say france played better?
    england took their 3 chances of score in good
    france had a very rusty start before coming back well
    the morale, france gave the points, yes, but the most clinical always deserve to win

  • pretzel
    3:01 PM 13/03/2012

    I'm neither a French fan nor an English fan but I have to agree that sin binning was ridiculous. I have no idea how he could deem what Fofana did as "penalty worthy" but then give a card to the English player for doing more or less the same thing.

    I mean either Fofana went for the interception and dropped it, therefore it is a scrum, or he tried to knock it out the air, therefore it is a penalty... (and the last time I checked it is normally a yellow card as well??)
    Therefore the England 11 either went for the interception and dropped it, or knocked it down deliberately... so it is the same punishment surely!?!?

  • pretzel
    3:01 PM 13/03/2012

    I'm neither a French fan nor an English fan but I have to agree that sin binning was ridiculous. I have no idea how he could deem what Fofana did as "penalty worthy" but then give a card to the English player for doing more or less the same thing.

    I mean either Fofana went for the interception and dropped it, therefore it is a scrum, or he tried to knock it out the air, therefore it is a penalty... (and the last time I checked it is normally a yellow card as well??)
    Therefore the England 11 either went for the interception and dropped it, or knocked it down deliberately... so it is the same punishment surely!?!?

  • pretzel
    2:51 PM 13/03/2012

    I'm with Stroudos and Rich on this one, I always find that Moore is the most critical of his own countrymen than he is of other teams. He has passion for England and would like them to win, but I get the impression he'd rather see them play a brilliant game of rugby and lose, over a weak performance and win.

    Again, I didn't think there was much penalty worthy when Ashton gave the penalty away, but again it was pointless and there was no need to do it.

    I think Moore said the same thing about a later incident, he said he didn't really think it was penalty worthy, but it was stupid and there was no need to do it, so England deserved the penalty against them.. (Something I recall him saying, but I cannot be sure what happened and why)

  • stroudos
    10:45 AM 13/03/2012

    Fuck's sake Dave. Every single comment from French people on here goes out of its way to congratulate England on a good win first and foremost. They've all been very measured in pointing out that there were French mistakes that helped England. Nothing wrong with that, especially considering they're absolutely accurate.

  • stroudos
    10:43 AM 13/03/2012

    Couldn't disagree more Punisher. Butler, when he's calling a Wales game, is way too partisan, but on England games not at all. Brian Moore is by a very, very wide margin THE most neutral commentator. Show me a Kiwi commentator who calls for penalties against his own team, which Moore does frequently. When Ashton gave away that penalty, Moore's straight in saying it was "brainless", (whereas my first reaction was damn right have a pop at Rougerie, he's a bit late and grabbing Foden's bollocks).

    Here's a classic Brian Moore moment from a few years ago, where he got so abusive AGAINST England the director cut his microphone just before his comment got broadcast. I'd love to know what he said, but you get the general idea from Eddie Butler's reaction:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTQWT-B0EBw

  • stroudos
    10:34 AM 13/03/2012

    Really? Is Lievremont back?

  • frenchie
    4:35 AM 13/03/2012

    Well done England, they are the deserved winners. I like that team, Lancaster does a very good job and i think he should stay.
    24-22 is flattering for the French and does not reflects the fact that they had a shocker. Second half was much better, our forwards did a good job in the scrum but again our back line played poorly. They gave 2 easy tries in 1st half, England have been clinical exploiting mistakes, as usual.

    I don't understand why we change our game plan vs England. It pissed me off watching Beauxis kicking every ball, often directly in the hands of English players. I don't think Beauxis has the talent of Trinh-duc.
    This French team doesn't make the good decisions. At 10 meters from the English try line we should have kept the ball in hands and insist. Drop goal came way too early.

    I haven't read anything on the team that will play Wales but i think some of the players should be changed. Wales could trash us.

  • rich_w
    11:31 PM 12/03/2012

    Erm... You realise Eddie Butler is Welsh right. And Brian Moore is pretty fair I think. Care to point out the one-sided comments in this clip?

    And yeah it was Ashton who tackled Rougerie, great hands from Farrell with the pickup swivel and offload too.

  • pretzel
    10:41 PM 12/03/2012

    I thought England did a BRILLIANT job of letting the French right back in the game through ill discipline. Apart from Fofana's try and the conversion, ALL of the points were from the boot, through a HUGE amount of ill discipline.

  • mbdefon
    5:16 PM 12/03/2012

    Lionel Nallet, Julien Dupuy, Maxime Mermoz and Julien Malzieu are out against Wales.

    Brilliant Jean-Marcellin Buttin and Florian Fritz are playing against wales . Also Julien Pierre, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Dimitri Yachvili, Alexis Palisson are taking over. Huge changes in the group..

    Can't wait for France v Wales.

  • guy
    5:13 PM 12/03/2012

    Sorry, don't agree with you on this one. A big part of good offense is recognizing the weaknesses in your opponents defense. Otherwise only the team with the biggest players would score because they would be the only ones to get over the gainline and towards the tryline.

    So, I do agree that England exploited the holes in the French defense. But I do think credit also goes to the England offense for finding the gaps.

    In my own opinion off course

  • englishneil
    4:19 PM 12/03/2012

    ^^^^^^ ha ha! I didn't catch that! Thank God for the commentary in Rugby, so much more interesting than most other sports!

  • matthew
    4:10 PM 12/03/2012

    Oh, also needs a clip of Brian Moore's comment about Rolland's linguistic skills - 'It doesn't matter to me that referee Alain Rolland can speak French. It just means he gets it wrong in two languages.'

  • matthew
    4:09 PM 12/03/2012

    Cracking game, balanced on a knife edge in the end.

    The video is lacking Tom Croft's stamp on Dowson just before the French try - ouch! (Perhaps a post with a video of that incident is required, Rugbydump...?)

    And I'm really pleased Croft beat the French fullback and scored, not least of all because he should've guaranteed the try by passing to Foden on his right!

  • thbts
    4:04 PM 12/03/2012

    Absolutely agree with you ! We were too generous in defense for winning.

    On the third try i still don't understand why Rougerie slides...

  • moddeur
    3:42 PM 12/03/2012

    Watching the match on the Beeb: "Oh [sipping tea], I'll say, that was a somewhat spectacular try, wasn't it Jeeves? [sluuurp]"
    Watching the match on French TV: "OH MY GOD AAAH THE FINAL MINUTES ARE INSANE THEY'RE AAAHHHH THE BALL GOES AAAAH WHAT A MATCH!!"

    Great match: England consistent throughout, France up and down. That's "experience" for you. France was expected to emerge on top, with 600+ caps to England's 190 caps, but all that this exposed was that France, since 2010, has been a team of old hay-cutting vehicles, incapable of running as fast as their Ferrari opponents.

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