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Sun 11 Mar 2018 | 04:13
Lionel Beauxis shocker nearly costs France dramatic win at home

39
Comments

France claimed a hard-earned win over England at the Stade de France on Saturday night. However, things got unnecessarily dramatic with time up as Lionel Beauxis failed to find touch with what should have been a game-winning kick, thereby giving England hope and a golden opportunity to escape with a win.

With the score 19-16, Beauxis came on as a sub for Francois Trinh-Duc late in the match and had an impact, slotting a penalty from right in front of the posts with two minutes to spare. 

With France then nursing a 22-16 lead in added time, England replacement hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie's errant lineout throw one-hopped straight into the awaiting hands of Beauxis, who was already starting his kicking motion. All that was then left to do was find touch.

As we've seen before, you can't ever go to sleep on the wildly inconsistent fly-half. This being no exception, he quickly booted a shocker that failed to find touch and gave England one last chance.

Mathieu Bastareaud was one of those spotted throwing his hands up in pre-mature celebration. 

After the missed touch finder, England got themselves in a great position to score, with a converted try what they needed to snatch victory. However, they knocked on close to the line.

A very relieved Beauxis can be seen letting out a heavy sigh as the final whistle blew.

Coupled with the England loss, Ireland's earlier win over Scotland saw them secure their third Six Nations championship in five years. France's win also denied England a shot at their third consecutive championship. 

FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

Credit: Rugby Paradise/Six Nations Rugby/Getty Images

Posted By: davidharper

39 Comments

  • reality
    9:13 PM 16/03/2018

    No, sorry, I'm wrong. It's actually the last lineout, at 82.38. You'll know when you see it.

  • felipeg
    1:21 PM 16/03/2018

    You mean anyone but the actual one then :-)
    And I tend to agree.

  • oliver
    1:06 PM 16/03/2018

    mm a Trin Duc / Basta / Fickou / Grosso / Thomas / Fall backline doesn't sound half bad!

    I think Basta has to stay, he's proven he brings a lot physically and mentally, but for the other centre, if everyone is fit, I'd have a hard time choosing... Fofana, Fickou, Lamerat, Penaud are all real good.
    anyways fingers crossed for tomorrow.....allez les bleus!!!

  • felipeg
    9:31 AM 16/03/2018

    Indeed! Even weirder: who would have thought of Bonneval-Fall-Grosso to win this game?!!!
    Glad to see Bonneval out tough, never been fond of him. Fall did good as fullback. And Grosso-Fickou on the wings is unexpected but pretty interesting.
    Personnaly I'd rather have Grosso and Thomas, with Fickou associated with Basta.

  • oliver
    7:29 AM 16/03/2018

    Yeah I called Brunel ! ;-)

    anyways apart from that change and Guirado hurt, I'm glad to see some stability in the team. but man, what a crazy ride....
    Who would have thought 2 months ago Basta and Trin Duc would lead France to victory over England??!

  • felipeg
    1:16 PM 15/03/2018

    Update concerning Slimani. He'll start on the bench VS Wales but it's not a sanction says Brunel. Brunel also says he had a contact with the international referees commission and heard that they disagree with Peyper's calls on 2 out of the 3 penalties. Peyper was biased against Slimani and failed to see that the english commited infringement of their own... So says Brunel.
    But still, Slimani's on the bench.

  • 3:49 PM 14/03/2018

    They're actually sort of gently bashing Beauxis, like "Dafuq bruh ? Why didn't you kick right in your endzone or in the crowd ? Why this kick ???", just priceless !

  • im1
    10:58 AM 14/03/2018

    My point is that because England are slow to the breakdown, the effect of using this tactic is greater. So its worth taking the risk and really really pushing it as far as you can when you play England.

    Agreed its the perception of the ref on the day, but the England captain should be raising it as an issue with the ref just to put it in his mind. In the same way the French captain should be telling the ref that England are always too slow to the breakdown.

  • drg
    10:27 AM 14/03/2018

    In one of the games, maybe ire Vs sco, there was a high ball, a player from each team caught it, crashed to the ground and wouldn't let it go, Wayne Barnes I think he was the ref, said Ireland was going forwards their ball at the scrum..

    ..I'm not sure on the official rulings, but it seems to fit with what you said, I guess 50/50 rulings have to be called one way or another....unless the referee makes everyone walk back 20m then puts the ball down and whoever it's whoever gets there first! That could be amusing to watch...

  • colombes
    9:59 AM 14/03/2018

    You perfectly described a tactic always used by..... the irish, and by most of rugby nations in modern rugby. so i don't really understand your point. Sometimes, it works, sometimes not.

    -For example, in the opening 6N rainy day. Irish players were suddenly very slow to roll away and France could not play with speed, apart a solo effort of Thomas.
    -In the same manner, when France tried to slow the scot game they received something like 3 penalties, making the match difference.

    So i guess it's more a ref perception of the events and players attitude. You may bet EJ will point it in his pre-match press conference, just for the form

  • felipeg
    8:55 AM 14/03/2018

    As it was VS the irish. Without being penalised either...

    If it was a tactic, fair enough! Cheeky tactic is exactly what France lacked lately. And what England is famous for...

    I don't know if its an official guideline for referees, but I think they often tend to rule in favor of the team who's going forward, who's winning the physical battle.

  • oliver
    7:51 AM 14/03/2018

    surprise surprise: I don't agree! Honestly I think the main reason why England had so much trouble at rucks is that France was winning every collision. you can't get quick ball or sometimes you get no ball at all when every ball carrier is driven back. French defense was fantastic!

  • oliver
    7:48 AM 14/03/2018

    yes it was him. I screamed at my screen! and he did the same thing vs Ireland....

  • 11:54 PM 13/03/2018

    Got to agree about the Beauxis case. Isn't it him also who kicks the ball back to the English side at the 78th minute ? We should have held onto that ball until the end and finished the game right there.

  • 11:40 PM 13/03/2018

    Got to love the mellow jazz over those videos :-)

  • im1
    6:17 PM 13/03/2018

    good point on Itoje pulling down Camara's arm. I noticed the time and was praying they weren't going to play any more replays!

    On the biting point, England provided all the evidence they had to the citing commisioner before window closed. I'd like to think the commissioner re watches the game closely from many different camera angles. Assuming they did then they must have found not evidence that they was a bit. So case closed.

  • drg
    5:39 PM 13/03/2018

    The dummy throw, can you see it in the video provided of the Beauxis kick? Only the hooker sort of leans forward, and moves the ball slightly, but it doesn't got over, or much over his head, so I'm not sure that's a dummy throw particularly...

    As for bites, they must be so hard to prove unless they're obvious...

  • gerrymc
    5:37 PM 13/03/2018

    There was about 3 forward movements, and I reckon he was about 2 feet over the touchline by the time the ball left his hands. Despite an AR standing next to hookers, this is never picked up, also the stealing of metres at penalty kicks to touch. Every kicker goes a minimum of 3 metres beyond the mark when kicking for the corner or touch, again this is never pinged.

  • oliver
    5:24 PM 13/03/2018

    another thing that was missed was Itoje pulling camara's arm during the lineout that led to the English try.... clear penalty. as for that dummy throw, I hadnt seen it but I could barely look at the screen at that point!
    As for the bite claim, the window for citing has passed.

  • im1
    4:42 PM 13/03/2018

    ..... if you look at the last play, when England knock on, there are two French player, the initial tackler and the 4, who just roll on to the wrong side of the ruck. France were doing this all game but not lying on the ball preventing anyone who is immediately there to play it. Instead they are going a little bit beyond the ball. As England have shown that they lack the ability to get to the tackled player immediately, for a significant number of breakdowns and England player will need to arrive a split second late at pace to force the first French player to the breakdown off the ball. However, by placing a French player in the zone where an England player would run up, this makes it almost impossible to get any forward momentum when reaching the ruck as they have to be careful about where they place their feet and hurdle the French player. So when they arrive at they ruck they are going so slowly there is no point being there.

    I don't want to sound like I am complaining, because I'll say that the best way to deal with this it to make sure they get their first anyway, but I do think that the French chose as a tactic to do it because its quite a marginal offence. And it certainly paid off. A good captain would be pointing this out to the ref quietly but screaming at his players to get to the ruck quicker.

    England played pretty badly for most of the game and deserved to lose. The fact they got so close to winning after playing that badly away from home probably reflects how poor France are at the moment.

  • im1
    4:33 PM 13/03/2018

    England have 2 problems.

    1. Their attack is so flat.

    e.g. 1 Even though they scored, if you pause at 2.30 its a 4 on 3, almost 4 on 2, yet May and Daly are in line with Brown. Now, I assume Farrell wouldn't have passed to Brown anyway as he would never have passed it to May afterwards, but that is a school boy level of skill to finish it off. Brown has taken a lovely line and has good momentum and depth. If he is passed the ball its a simple pass from him to anyone with a bit of depth would have likely put them through the hole just inside the last defender. Brown could probably have scored himself if he had the ball at 2.32

    e.g. 2 This isn't in the highlights above, but some pundit/fans have suggested England would have scored if they had gone wide right on the last play rather than LCD picking and going. If you look at the wider angle just before the highlights package here starts showing the last play, there is almost a 5 on 2 for England. But their body angles are wrong and their depth is non-existent. They would just be pushed wide and backwards by the cover defence.

    Although both examples were in the last 10 minutes, if England claim to be the fittest team then they should be able to take the 3-4 steps back they all need to get their momentum going forward (and straight forward, not to the side). Depth is the most important part of attack. If gives the momentum to go forward in the tackle, the vision to see where the gap is, the time to make decisions and the ability to pose as a genuine threat. Sometimes its the really basic things that a non-specialist backs coach forgets to drill into his players

    The other problem, that is ridiculously obvious, is the inability to secure their own ball going forward. The complete opposite of Ireland. One theory I have on this though, and I don't want to come across as complaining but assume I will do, is that I think the French were very clever/cheeky here...but totally illegal

  • jimmy23
    4:02 PM 13/03/2018

    It's strange to think that almost the exact same scenario happened last year against Wales and yet England managed to pull it off without a hitch. Strange how things can drastically change in a year.

  • drg
    2:40 PM 13/03/2018

    Hahaha yeh hadn't considered that about France finishing the game!

    I suppose it's because England were 'supposed' to win, and when given a couple chances they still didn't.... France were 'supposed' to lose...and so when they had 2 chances to fulfill that prophecy everyone congratulated them...

  • moo
    2:35 PM 13/03/2018

    Yeah, I saw that too. Things get missed though. No complaints about the officials, as Peyper was equally bad for both sides. However, the officials as always made fewer mistakes than the players. So as I said, no complaints here.

    Any news on the Itoje bite claim? Seems a bit odd, as he's not one for feigning injury.

  • drg
    2:31 PM 13/03/2018

    Regarding Beauxis - I know "that" kick was shit, but to be fair he looked like he was trying to kick it as quick as he could see Haskell coming who was only a couple metres away from him...

    Of course he could have taken it and bitted it behind him, or ship it backwards, but I think as abysmal as it was, if I was a 10 I wouldn't want Haskell that close to me...

  • felipeg
    12:48 PM 13/03/2018

    Regarding Slimani:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoFL6mhF9dY

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9UjAeFmiYU

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koFV2nIoOy0

    As for Beauxis, you can find plenty of his good moments also. But it's obvious he can be extremely good or bad depending on... the moon maybe...

  • oliver
    12:31 PM 13/03/2018

    oh I'm not saying it's fair. But he just seems to get penalised A LOT at international games, compared to top 14 games. You're right about that Wales scrum though!

    As for Beauxis, he seems to be the kind of player who does not handle pressure well and/or does crazy risky moves, even with his club. remember this??

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z95H0hR-20A

  • felipeg
    9:47 AM 13/03/2018

    True. And when France misses at least two opportunities to kill the game, it doesn't surprise anyone :-)
    Still, kudos to their defense. I don't know what the english could have done in the end of this game. They needed a converted try. The "irish way" wasn't an option. They had to go thru but could not.

  • felipeg
    9:40 AM 13/03/2018

    Not at every single game. Sometimes it's just the opposite.
    Remember this absurd Wales-France neverending game?
    They had Slimani (illegaly) replacing Atonio to win this last scrum.

    And he scored some nice tries for France to.

    Former back myself I m in the same position... But even if I understand your point of view, it would seem pretty unfair to merely drop him. At least he should be given a chance to adapt. Wich I believe he did during this crunch.

    Regarding Beauxis... well I guess we won't have to discuss his case very longer. He was never the first choice of the coach. And clearly not a long term option. But its kinda sad to see him underperform like that. One of those many good Top 14 players who seem paralysed wearing blue. Look for the "Beauxis' day" video on youtube...

  • drg
    12:15 AM 13/03/2018

    I think it's probably plain to see that France has been doing really badly of late - by contrast England has in the recent past been playing well, or getting victories at least... So it's no surprise that they're being labelled as bad when they failed.

    That being said, what France did was tightened everything up and cracked on with what's going on in front of them..

    Just to add, you know England as a unit have got something wrong with them when they are gifted 2 opportunities to win the game and they still couldn't do it...

  • reality
    11:16 PM 12/03/2018

    Regardless of the fact that Beauxis should clearly be sacked and never play professional rugby again, did anyone else think it was incredible that the English hooker's dummy throw into the lineout wasn't penalised? It was so blatant too, and that blindingly obvious decision would have avoided Beauxis making himself an international laughing stock.

  • oliver
    5:41 PM 12/03/2018

    I think Slimani has to go. as a former back I dont know enough about scrummage to decide whether it's right or wrong, but he's obviously targeted by international refs and costs us penalties at every single game.

  • felipeg
    4:26 PM 12/03/2018

    I wasn't so sure about Brunel's decision to maintain the same team that won against Italy. It appears it was a good idea after all!

    Funny how most UK media say that the english are liable for their loss while most french media describe a deserved win by Les Bleus.

    To me the french lacked offensive - and set piece - efficiency, badly, but still managed to win with guts, power and discipline. Their defense was outstanding again. They overpowered the english. That's all. And as Scotland showed last week, the English are unable to perform when overpowered. They are used to be the big bully of the school.

    I'v read that the english players are tired due to the Lion's tour. That's quite funny too. It's the usual french excuse (agenda of the Top14 etc)!

  • colombes
    4:25 PM 12/03/2018

    It was a long time France didn't win 2 matches in a row.
    As long as it's always nice to win England, it's just a victory, nothing more.

    The good point was to watch players like Bastareaud, Machenaud, Camara, Tauleigne or Grosso following Guirado exemplar behavior. It was not a vintage victory but one full of passion and commitment. The Edinburgh banned players and injured ones will have to show the same spirit, when they will be back.

    Les bleus clearly won the breakdown area after losing the touchline one.
    After few weirds calls in the scrum, the french pack could have spend a frustrated afternoon, but they reacted well and didn't make big faults. In the backs, you can feel the will to play, but the combinations are still a bit rusty. Penaud, Fofana, Thomas, Lacroix, Huget can bring something for the summer tour.
    Regarding french inconsistence these years, i stay relatively sceptic Wales

    England, in the other hand is surprisingly very predictable and one dimensional. They seem to lack a B plan when they clearly have the cards to do more. Their biggest weakness is the breakdown area and the 10 zone, where Ford is constantly dumped. Slade would be a better option.

  • jimmy23
    3:53 PM 12/03/2018

    Congratulations France. It wasn't a pretty victory, but they tackled and took the ball into contact like men possesed.

    Hard to say what's going on with England but I think it's a mix of things.

    Lions Tour. All the English Lions have played nearly twice the amount of rugby as their Welsh and Irish counterparts, they just seem sluggish physically and mentally. The Irish players just seem mentally sharper and the rest they've had after the Lions has to be playing a part in that. Is it any surprise that the likes of Kyle Sinckler and Elliot Daly, Lions who had periods of rest (albeit through injury/suspension) looked the best out of the bunch on Saturday?

    Aviva Premiership. Clearly there's something about the way the breakdown is contested (or isn't contested) in the Aviva which is having an effect whenever the English teams (club and country) come up against other European teams. They just don't seem to be used to the level of competition there.

    Lack of attack coach. Is it any surprise that when we had Glen Ella in the coaching team we looked the best we have ball in hand under Eddie Jones? The attack could be suffering because of other factors but it could help to have someone in the coaching setup who concentrates on this.


    I hate to be that person, but I think Lawes and Hughes's injuries could potentially be blessing in disguises. Will we finally get to see Don Armand and Charlie Ewels playing?

  • tphillipsstl
    3:49 PM 12/03/2018

    I love french announcers. I have no idea what they're saying, but I love it!

  • drg
    3:24 PM 12/03/2018

    Well... I hope for England sake they weren't focussed on the Ireland game next week thinking they'd walk over a misfiring french outfit...

    I agree with 45678 in that England have got it twisted, they're picking the wrong team for the tactic or wrong tactic for the team.. they aren't effective in their own strategy. I watched the game but not with any great amount of attention, but what did strike me in the moments I watched was how fairly anonymous the England back row were -
    Nathan Hughes 125kg
    Chris Robshaw 110kg
    Courtney Lawes 111kg
    These are all big and tall blokes, sure they don't have the low centre of gravity of the likes of Hooper, Pocock, or even Barclay etc of Scotland, but they should be big carriers making large yards, but they just seemed so lumbering to me... Willing to take the ball at an amble and fall over the gainline by a metre or so.. perhaps France nullified these guys effectiveness, or maybe they just didn't turn up properly.

    I thought that France would be in for a rough ride given England being beaten by Scotland last week... But France handled them well, despite the own French poor play in areas.. so I'm not sure that need for a win will carry on into the Ireland game or whether they'll have another flop?

  • drg
    3:08 PM 12/03/2018

    Bastareud definitely seems to be a "follow me" sort of bloke. He's up there doing the dirty work, making yards, hitting hard and rucking like a forward...in a forwards body...with a backs number on his back...

  • oliver
    1:14 PM 12/03/2018

    Man it's trying to be a French fan these days. After the 20 minutes of overtime vs Wales last year, the last-minute defeat to Ireland and now this, I'm sure I've lost about 5 years of life expectancy.
    Anyways well done to les Bleus. Felt so good!

    Now about this particular incident: I NEVER want to see Beauxis in a blue jersey again. Yeah it's harsh, but come on, he's 31 now. He has the experience and should know better.
    Also how about Basta as captain? He seems to be a real leader on the pitch and is captain at Toulon, so why not? Guirado is a leader by exemple but does not seem to "rally the troops" much....

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