ENGLAND SEE OFF REJUVENATED FRANCE

ENGLAND    23  -  13   FRANCE

England kept their Grand Slam dream alive with a hard fought victory over France at Twickenham saturday night. Before the game pundits were all worried this game would be a non event and the English would easily trample over their neighbours from the English Channel. England had been powerful and strong in the first 2 games and look the real deal this year in the RBS Six nations.


Their opponents, had suffered a mixed bag in the Championship this year as they just beat Italy in Rome struggling to get a win. And their last game against Wales was played in awful conditions but they played terribly against the welsh and made too many sloppy errors and handling errors. This resulted in the home crowd booing them out the ground and had the press absolutely slam them  as well as the French coach Philippe-Saint Andre.


The game was billed as "Le Crunch" between the 2 rival sides and as the match started it didn`t take long for England to get on the scoreboard as a Penalty for offside was converted by the boot of Owen Farrell in under 2 minutes. The fears of it being one sided was starting to get whispered about, But France were a different side as they came back and made some good plays. France had a good attack which was knocked on by Bastareaud but luckily for him France was playing the advantage and so play came back for Morgan Parra to kick it over to draw level at the 5th minute.


 France then showed they meant buisness as they dominated early on in the scrum and were over powering the english pack, As Les Bleus were punishing the home side in the scrum and France continued to press on with the scrum as they gained a little victory by showing they could push England around. Again the French attacked and were unlucky when a ball passed and hit forward with Trinh-Duc boot and was run onto by Fofana who kicked it along the ground but was pulled back for the ref to say Trinh-Duc knocked on which was a tough call on the French.

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Tensions between Farrell & Huget flare as they have a little shoving match after a run of play is whistled dead. England had some possession but turned the ball over to the French and then were penalised for not rolling away on the England captain Chris Robshaw. France were much more the stronger side in the game, England then through a good run of play was awarded a penalty which was kicked into touch inside the French 22 & England drove the ruck on and while playing the advantage Tuilagi ran towards the try line but was tackled.

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Farrell then tried a chip kick to the far side for the run of Chris Ashton but his kick was to far, Farrell did convert the penalty for England and made it 6-3. France from the restart struck back as their hard work paid off as Fofana broke away from a couple of England players then managed to keep running and held off the final 2 challenges that awaited him and scored a great solo try and with the conversion made it 10-6 for the visitors.


Domingo then gave a penalty away for not rolling away quick enough for the referees liking and Owen Farrell kicked over to reduce the lead to a solitary point. Parra had a chance to make it a 4point lead going into the half time break as a French player was adjudge to have been taken out in the lineout, Parra kick went wide of the posts and brought the end to an interesting 1st half.

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Second half  France had a great chance to extend the lead again and again Parra pulled his kick wide of the posts giving a huge sigh of relief to the Home side. England re-took the lead as a scrum by the french collapsed and gave Farrell the chance to kicke the 3points on offer and the youngster did just that for a 12-10 scoreline.


England were starting to look like the side in the previous 2 games as they were kicking on now having alot of phases now. Goode then launched a high ball toward the french which Nyanga couldn`t deal with and when the ball was on the deck a kick forward by a England players richocheted off a team mate and Tuilagi pounced on it and run it back for a try to make it 17-10 but Farrell missed the conversion.


Les Bleus hit back with a penalty as Michalak kicked over for to reduce the gap to 4 points, Farrell then missed a penalty dragging it wide and in the process looked to have a pained expression written across his face as he seemed to have pulled his groin taking the kick. And when he tried to kick upfield his kick was poor and limped badly after that.

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England were looking better now and France were running out of steam after the great first half they had, So England just started to take the game away from the French and showed the tiredness and lapses in concentration when a careless pass was intercepted by Robshaw who couldn`t make of it as he was brought down.



Another penalty was awarded for England and Flood put it over to make 20-13. And right near the end France didn`t release the ball when under pressure and Saint Andre couldn`t believe it in the stands and Flood put the game beyond doubt with further penalty added to the scoreboard and rub salt in the wounds of the French.