France get their Grand Slam
Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:38
Champions: France celebrate their 2010 Six Nations Grand Slam
It was not pretty, but it was deserved. At a very wet Stade de France, in Paris, on Saturday France edged England 12-10 to win their first Six Nations Grand Slam in six years.
The singing of the Marseillaise was wonderful. It was the best part of the afternoon's rugby in Paris's heavy rain. There was precious little else to sing about or even shout about.
France won, and that's about all. England were the better side and scored the only try. Those are the basic facts of the match.
It is a fact that England were the better side. They scored the only try and were close on two other occasions. France did not look like scoring a try. Not at all. Not once. Never. They were jittery and clearly played with the fear of defeat in their hearts and minds. They won because their forwards were stronger and they denied England possession. possession was not a positive thing to do something with; it was a negative thing to prevent the opposition doing something with it. And in their pursuit of the aim of winning the Grand Slam they had an accomplice in the rain which made running and handling more difficult. A satisfactory win? Not if the jeering of the Stade de France crowd was anything to go by.
France did not score a point in the second half. They had no chance top kick at goal, which was going to be their only avenue to points. That was the case partly because they went without penalties for most of the half and in fact had only two penalties in their favour in that half. The first half was different when the penalty count was 8-1 in their favour. Morgan Parra kicked three of those penalties over.
For the rest Parra had a poor game. He greatly contributed to the slow tempo of the game, to denying his team the chance to play quickly. France often won quick ball but there is lay while Parra - or whoever the puppet master was - made it slow. Even at the scrums the French made the ball as slow as possible.
England, to their credit, tried to play quickly and played their best rugby of the Six Nations. Their try was their reward. Before the rain came pouring down, they got quick ball and Danny Care delivered it quickly, unlike what his usual custom had been. It all had the promise of good things to come.
France scored first through a dropped goal by François Trinh-Duc. England were freekicked at a scrum and France charged. Trinh-Duc lay back and kicked a wobbly dropped goal. 3-0 after 3 minutes.
England kicked off and big Mike Tindall won the ball for his side. England then went through phases. Each time the ball came back Care delivered it without delay. Four times in rapid succession they won quick ball at the tackle/ruck. After the fourth time they went left - Care to Toby Flood to Riki Flutey who got a quick pass to Chris Ashton who gave to Ben Foden on the overlap. Foden raced down the left touch-line, getting past Mathieu Bastareaud, too quick for Marc Andreu as he dived over in the corner after a 22-metre dash. Flood converted from touch. 7-3 to England after 5 minutes.
England came racing back and looked like repeating the Foden dose but Mark Cueto kicked.
At this stage the rain came down and it was the rain that beat the rugby. England gave up or got less ball and fed France with their errors.
Simon Shaw was penalised and Parra missed. Flutey was penalised at a tackle and Parra goaled. 7-6 after 17 minutes. Then came the first of three scrum penalties against Dan Cole. Parra goaled the first and the third of the three and France led 12-7 after 33 minutes. They did not score another point in the next 47 minutes.
In fact there was just one score in that time - when Parra infringed at a tackle and Jonny Wilkinson goaled magnificently from a long way out and close to touch. 12-10. That was after 66 minutes.
Mind you England made changes at half-time. Off went hooker Dylan Hartley and penalised prop Dan Cole and on came Steve Thompson and David Wilson. Here ended England's scrum problems.
Before that England, as they had done for Foden, produced an overlap for debutant Chris Ashton, who race down field and then too soon chipped ahead but Clément Poitrenaud beat him to the ball in France's in-goal. France did attack but just when things looked promising Parra hoisted a maniac kick into the England in-goal for a drop-out. I was so ridiculous one believed it must have been the game plan. Surely a player would never have done that of his own freewill.
Marty had a long break from far out but lost his way. Ashton chased a kick and flykicked the ball into the in-goal but was well beaten to the ball. Cueto had a great break and a long run but Care knocked on when a score looked distinctly possible. England were dominating the half.
Wilkinson came in for Flutey and into flyhalf with Flood shifting to inside centre.
England tapped a penalty and ran but France won a turnover and Parra kicked the ball out.
Man of the Match: Thierry Dusautoir was great for France and Marc Andreu fought above his weight with hardly an opportunity. Nick Easter and Lewis Moody were excellent for England and so was our Man of the Match Ben Foden who was great on defence and so promising on attack. Where has he been all Six Nations?
Moment of the Match: Ben Foden's try.
Villain of the match: Nobody.
The scorers:
For France:
Pens: Parra 3
DG: Trinh-Duc
For England:
Try: Foden
Con: Flood
Pen: Wilkinson
Teams:
France: 15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Marc Andreu, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10
François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Julien Pierre, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Thomas Domingo
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Sébastien Chabal, 19 Alexandre Lapandry, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 David Marty, 22 Julien Malzieu
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Chris Ashton, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Lewis Moody (captain), 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Louis Deacon, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Tim Payne
Replacements: 16 Steve Thompson, 17 David Wilson, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 James Haskell, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Jonny Wilkinson, 22 Mathew Tait
Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Alain Rolland (Ireland), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
TMO: Nigel
Whitehouse (Wales)
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