England shaded a tense encounter at Twickenham on Saturday evening and thus, gave their Grand Slam hopes a big boost as they ended defending champions France’s eight-match winning streak in the Six Nations.
Toby Flood kicked England into a 9-3 lead but silly penalties allowed Dimitri Yachvili’s boot make it 9-9 at half-time. The second period and England play improved which meant that Ben Foden’s try saw England go back in front before Jonny Wilkinson came on for the injured Flood and in his first act kicked a penalty which put him back as the leading Test points scorer. France continued to pound but England stood firm and even had two chances to extend but one was adjudged a forward pass and the other a double movement, so we had the England win and final score of:
England 17-9 France
Scorers
England
Tries: Foden Pens: Flood 3, Wilkinson
France
Pens: Yachvili 3
Teams
England: 15-Ben Foden, 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Mike Tindall (captain), 12-Shontayne Hape, 11-Mark Cueto, 10-Toby Flood, 9-Ben Youngs; 1-Andrew Sheridan, 2-Dylan Hartley, 3-Dan Cole, 4-Louis Deacon, 5-Tom Palmer, 6-Tom Wood, 7-James Haskell, 8-Nick Easter
Replacements: 16-Steve Thompson, 17-Alex Corbisiero, 18-Simon Shaw, 19-Hendre Fourie, 20-Danny Care, 21-Jonny Wilkinson, 22-Matt Banahan
France: 15-Clement Poitrenaud, 14-Yoann Huget, 13-Aurelien Rougerie, 12-Yannick Jauzion, 11-Vincent Clerc, 10-Francois Trinh-Duc, 9-Dimitri Yachvili; 1-Thomas Domingo, 2-William Servat, 3-Nicolas Mas, 4-Julien Pierre, 5-Lionel Nallet, 6-Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 7-Imanol Harinordoquy, 8-Sebastien Chabal
Replacements: 16-Guilhem Guirado, 17-Sylvain Marconnet, 18-Jerome Thion, 19-Julien Bonnaire, 20-Morgan Parra, 21-Damien Traille, 22-Alexis Palisson
Att: 82,107
Ref: George Clancy (IRFU).