Rugby, Six Nations: England humiliated at home by France

A monstrous France annihilates England at Twickenham, wins 53-10, also takes the bonus point and momentarily hooks Ireland at 15 at the top of the Six Nations table, at the end of the first part of the program of the fourth and penultimate day . Second defeat instead for the English, who remain at 10 and are now practically out of the race for the title. Scotland (10 points) will host Ireland tomorrow at 4 pm in Murrayfield with the aim of stopping the run of coach Andy Farrell’s team and at the same time applying for the final victory. On the last day, scheduled for next Saturday, Scotland and France will in fact have the easiest commitments on paper (both at home respectively with Italy and Wales), while Ireland will host England.

Domain

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France only needed 7 minutes to lead the game, first with a try by Thomas Ramos, who received wide left after a volley by Ethan Dumnortier, in turn triggered by two splendid breaks by Thibaud Flament and Charles Ollivon, who started from the defensive half , and then with the placement of Ramos himself, who also scores a free kick after the conversion. And in the 26th minute Les Bleus put a very heavy mortgage on victory, when playing on an advantage a few meters from the goal line, from a touchline launched close to 5 meters, they broke close to the posts with the second line Flament, who chose the ‘inside to drag across the line as many as 3 men attacked on him (Ramos transforms). The English, who prove once again to be very poor in ideas in attack and incomprehensibly not very intense, are also not very courageous in their choices in attack and manage to move the score only in the 34th minute thanks to a goal from Marcus Smith, but 3 minutes then he replies from the Ramos pitch. It is obvious that the change of coach just a few weeks before the start of the Tournament has a heavy impact on the English game, but the decision to oust Eddie Jones to rely on Steve Borthwick so far seems like a sensational own goal. And at the end of time the third French try arrives inevitable: the scrum pushes the English back, the number 8 Greg Aldritt can comfortably collect the oval and advance, to then serve offload on an opponent’s tackle the oval to Ollivon, who sweeps away Smith’s attempt and flies to dunk. Ramos obviously transforms and at the break it goes to a sensational, but well deserved 27-3.

Reaction

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A reaction of pure pride allows the English to build two tries at the start of the second half. First with Smith’s cross kick to catch Max Malins at the left flag, who however loses control of the oval in the dive and therefore the Tmo does not validate, then with the good one scored by the full back Freddie Steward, who receives deep in the 22 in central position and in the race he overwhelms Ramos to open his way to the try (which Smith converts). At half-time Bortwhick introduced Owen Farrell (who goes to center with Smith, despite the disastrous defensive performance confirmed at the opener) and Alex Mitchell at scrum-half in place of Jack van Poortvliet. However, very little is enough for France to close it and also put the bonus in the safe, with two tries in two minutes: in the 57th minute the brace from Flament, who receives the oval after a soccer from Dupont that surprises the English defense from behind and flies away unstoppable; in the 59th minute another kick forces Smith to rush to a direct ball towards the goal line, the English opener finds himself forced to defend the oval on the ground in order not to end up inside, but when he presents the oval there is the hand quickest of Ollivon to slip into the pile to crush robbery. Ramos transforms them both and the curtain can virtually already fall. Between 72′ and 75′ the humiliation becomes total, with a brace from Damian Penaud: the first goal comes from a kick from Gael Fickou, who just outside the defensive 22 sends wide towards the right-footed midfielder, the English number 8 Alex Dombrandt is unjustifiably lazy and too optimistic on the rebound, which, in fact, punctually punishes him, on the other hand, it is the winger Penaud who obviously becomes uncatchable at that point and flies towards the posts in the half unmanned field; the second comes from a touch on the left-footed out on 22 metres, with the French opening quickly, hands and perfect insertions until they free the wing for the triumphal sprint to the opposite flag (this time Ramos only puts in the first conversion). And luckily for the British it ends like this. For France, who hadn’t won at Twickenham since August 2007 (21-15 in a test before the World Cup), it is obviously also the victory with the greatest margin in the history of the matches against England (better than 37-12 of 1972 at the old Colombes stadium).