France outclassed world champions England here on Sunday to win their Six Nations clash 31-6 on the 100th anniversary of their first meeting in the tournament and inflict the worst defeat on the visitors between the sides in 34 years.
The French ran in three tries to none by England with Florian Fritz, Damien Traille and Christophe Dominici touching down and man of the match Dimitri Yachvili scoring 16 of their points.
It left France and Ireland realistically the only ones capable of lifting the title when the final round of matches are played next weekend.
England coach Andy Robinson was admirably blunt about his side’s performance.
”We were awful,” admitted Robinson, who was assistant to Clive Woodward in the 2003 World Cup win.
”We started poorly and gave 16 points away and when that happens against France and you hear the crowd and the band playing, that’s it. Game over.”
”We dropped a ball right from the start, gave some penalties away and never got going. I thought Mike Tindall and Matt Dawson gave everything as they had been up all night being sick.
”It’s disappointing but we have six days to recover and still have an opportunity to win the title. We have to respond against the Irish which we didn’t today.”
England skipper Martin Corry was also open about their failings.
”I don’t know,” was a stunned looking Corry’s initial response to where things had gone wrong.
”There was an unfortunate mix up and they got a good start. All we had to do was have some composure. The first 20 minutes were shocking. There were glimpses in the second-half that we could get back in. There was a little glimmer of hope and it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
”There were a lot of mistakes. We’ve gone out, tried to play and played poorly. It’s a huge setback. After the Scotland defeat we needed to come to Paris and put up a good performance and we haven’t done that.
”Now the pressure is going to be even greater and that will also come from within.”
France coach Beranrd Laporte congratulated his team and said it had been a much improved performance.
”Overall there was a lot to be positive about,” said the 41-year-old.
”What has changed compared to other matches is we were more consistent in several areas than we were against Italy or Ireland.
”Sometimes you plan things through a week and they don’t come off on the day but today things did go according to plan.”
France manager Jo Maso still put things in perspective.
”We must keep our feet on the ground even if we are happy now,” he said.
Yachvili, England’s destroyer-in-chief in their two prior meetings, was delighted to have made England eat their words.
”There is a lot of pride in beating the world champions. They had said they were going to kill us and bury us but is us who did that,” he said.
England got off to the worst possible start as Fritz benefited from a lack of decisiveness in the England defence — as three went for the same high ball and Jamie Noon dropped it — Traille picked it up and fed Fritz, who sped over the line to record his first try in his seventh Test after just 41 seconds.
Yachvili converted and then extended their lead to 10-0 in the seventh minute with a precisely taken penalty as the French threatened to overrun the English, who had yet to get into the hosts territory.
The impeccable Yachvili landed two more penalties in the first half to take the French into a commanding 16-0 lead with the break looming.
England did manage at last to get some points on the board when Olivier Magne was adjudged to be offside and Hodgson — who had seen an earlier attempt come back off the post — kicked the penalty to leave England surprisingly, given the domination of the French, just 13 points adrift at half-time.
However, that did not save Hodgson from being replaced at the break because of a sore hamstring with Andy Goode coming on. Goode reduced the lead to 10 points in the 43rd minute as he converted a penalty.
However, France for all their domination were unable to put the game away, with Yachvili missing with a drop goal and then a penalty. Twice their handling let them down, with Jerome Thion the biggest culprit as he dropped the ball after Dimitri Szarzewski had made the break following another error by England.
The English, though, eventually paid for another mistake as Traille made a brilliant break through the middle, leaving Lewsey for dead. His grubber kick should have been safely gathered by Harry Ellis but instead the Leicester scrum-half managed to lose the ball as he slid over the line and Traille picked it up to score his 10th try for his country.
Yachvili turned the screw on the English as he converted another penalty with seven minutes remaining to make it 24-6.
Dominici then had his moment of glory as he intercepted Goode’s pass and touched down under the posts and Yachvili added the conversion to put a proper slant on the margin of victory. – Sapa-AFP