Tricolores tortured at Twickers
11 Mar 2007
England shattered France’s Grand Slam ambitions with an emphatic 26-18 victory at Twickenham.
The shock result means the Six Nations title will only be decided on the last weekend of the competition.
France, Ireland and England all have six log points, with points differences of 42, 38 and 13 respectively. The Tricolores will play Scotland in Paris, Ireland travel to Rome to tackle Italy, while England go to Cardiff for a clash with Wales.
Having made 10 changes following their humilating defeat to Ireland at Croke Park, England looked like a different team on Sunday. The pack gave a much improved performance, especially in the line-out, while stand-in captain Mike Catt had a massive impact in his first Test appearance in a year.
Trailing 12-9 at the break, the home side took the lead on the hour mark when Catt ran around French hooker Raphael Ibanez and sent flyhalf Toby Flood away for the try. However, England’s continued indiscipline at the breakdown allowed Dimitri Yachvili to edge France back in front with two penalties in quick succession.
Flood left the field with a knee injury and was replaced by Shane Geraghty, who slotted his first three points in Test rugby after a strong break by winger David Strettle.
Geraghty set up England’s second try with 10 minutes remaining when he claimed the ball behind his 10m line, beat three defenders and passed to Catt, who couldn’t collect the pass. However, the ball went backwards to fellow midfielder Mike Tindall who grabbed the match-winner.
That gave England an eight-point cushion and although France spent the last few minutes in opposition territory they never looked like getting over the tryline.
England – Tries: Toby Flood, Mike Tindall. Conversions: Flood, Shane Geraghty. Penalties: Flood (3), Geraghty.
France – Penalties: David Skrela (3), Dimitri Yachvili (3).
23 Comments
11 Mar 2007, 18:47 pm
England will think they are going to win the World Cup with this win.
11 Mar 2007, 18:49 pm
France were just plain kak. Poms were ok.
11 Mar 2007, 18:52 pm
#2 Typical France – one week great then the next week they are mediocre. I actually thought that Michael Catt was in a retirement home already. Captain nogal!! The Poms must have been desperate. They probably won’t allow Johnny Wilkinson to recover fully from his injury before they select him again. Six Nations boring this season. Irish blowing hot and cold and then the Italians are surprising some teams – maybe the opposition is just plain **** that they are getting wins.
11 Mar 2007, 19:15 pm
France were simply awefull.
11 Mar 2007, 19:20 pm
Hopefully France will decide to play against Scotland otherwise they will be roasted Frogs Legs. Ireland will also have to play to their potential otherwise the Azzurri might just upset the Irish. England/Wales – well any side might win there – depends how good England think they are or how bad Wales actually are.
11 Mar 2007, 19:29 pm
The laser like precision with which a scratch England side dismantled the French was excellent. The French were made to look woeful.
And quite what an array of fly half talent. England’s 3rd choice fly half would be the crown prince of SA rugby if was eligible for the boks. Can we set up a transfer?
England were able to attack with guile and pace from all parts of the pitch. Moves the boks couldnt eveb pull off in training. Come on Jake the boks are playing catch up again.
11 Mar 2007, 19:44 pm
Ha. St M. You make me laugh. Gerraghty is Irish and this was one game. The boks with the magnificent Matfield and Botha will eat that sorry lot up. Come on? Martin Corry is now your lock? 35 year old Mike Catt is now your saviour? Bring it on Pommies. We are waiting. Its been a long time since you decided to brave our sunny shores.
11 Mar 2007, 19:47 pm
Mike Catt will never be Englands saviour – just put Jonah Lomu on the field and you will see Catt run across the ocean.
11 Mar 2007, 20:03 pm
Damn right St Mick old boy. England looked a new side with a 21st choice SAFA in charge.
A man with almost genuine rugby pedigree, Only half tainted with English parentage.
11 Mar 2007, 20:41 pm
gotta take your hat off to catt though. everyone thought his career was over after jonah made him his ***** in 95. he came back and was integral in the wc win, and here he is 12 years after he got run over captaining england.
well done dude.
11 Mar 2007, 20:54 pm
#6
I would not get too excited if I were you. I realise that the average pom has had very little to celebrate recently but you have to take this win with a pinch of salt.
The French are just being smart, they do not care about winning some second rate competion which has more than half the countries competion firmly belonging to the “second” tier of rugby playing nations.
The French like the AB’s are using a squad system and rotation their players to test as many players as possilble before the RWC which is what they want to win.
So celebrate your “victory” tonight.
11 Mar 2007, 21:36 pm
stMichel, my god old ****, are you back?
11 Mar 2007, 21:48 pm
Jaysus StMichel, are you moonlighting for tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph?
“laser-like precision” is how your ophthalmologist should handle your overdue retina procedure.
11 Mar 2007, 21:49 pm
England deserved to win, France were awful. Am I the only one who thinks Catt knocked-on for the game-winning try?
11 Mar 2007, 22:45 pm
St Mick only posts when England wins. That is why we all thought he passed on. It has taken England that long to win.
Glad you are well enough & still pompus enough to post again.
11 Mar 2007, 23:25 pm
LOL @ citizenc! Nice!
Aaaah lovely- the buildup to Englands humiliation in SA starts…
12 Mar 2007, 00:01 am
Well I’ve said France were well over-rated and today showed that to be true. England were improved but still pretty flat.
Geraghty is born and bred in England to both Irish parents, played U16 for Ireland, but considers himself English, has played for England Junior teams since. No problems for me about that, and I’m Irish.
His first visit to Dublin in a white shirt might be interesting though.
Anyway regardless of squad rotations many first choice French players played today and few impressed.
It’s a pity that France seem to save their best performances for Ireland, but of the two coaches Eddie O Sullivan will be much happier than Laporte. Ireland played badly against both France and Scotland and barely lost to France playing well. Very little flair from France and the game of rugby is devalued as a spectacle as a result.
Don’t be surprised to hear the France team get booed by their own crowd in Paris next week.
As for Ireland it’s theirs to lose (the Championship). If they don’t beat Italy by more than 4 points more than France beat Scotland then they don’t deserve it. Paul O’ Connell is injured though which won’t help. Time for others to step up.
12 Mar 2007, 03:03 am
Arrogance of the english!
Can’t do anything on their own, so they put a saffa in their team – then start winning. Only to turn around and bite the hand that fed them.
Cricket, Rugby, all the same.
Pity Bafana’s not up to scratch else they could put a saffa in their football team too, because that’s something else they’re absolutely useless at.
Darts and Snooker, thats all they can do – pub sports.
12 Mar 2007, 04:05 am
Don’t forget that the Boks could only manage to DRAW their 2006 two-test series against England and, once again, could not actually win it!
It’s arrogant of SA fans to imagine that the reigning world champions are not a very, very serious threat to SA’s own 2007RWC aspirations!
What part of “reigning rugby world champions” is so hard to understand?
12 Mar 2007, 04:35 am
Not very difficult to understand Tackles, but what has it got to do with the current state of affairs? Its like saying the AB will not be contenders this year because they are not the reigning RWC, they won it last in…when was it again? Oh yes 1987 or something!
What is interesting is not the current state of english rugby, we know they are in a hole, but the sudden lack of form from France. Maybe a ploy but if so a very dangerous game to play…
As for the Boks, the pool game against the Poms will be even more important this time around than last. Last time it was very much a ‘hope’ affair, we hoped to beat them in the pool giving us an easier ride, hopefully. Was never going to happen and the loss in the pool confirmed that followed by a double quick exit in the next round.
This time they will be a better team, better prepared and expected to win the pool game…
Not pie in the sky Tackles but an overall changing in mindset.
12 Mar 2007, 08:36 am
Mike Catt is OLDER than Os Du Randt and Mark Andrews!
He may have been trampled on by Jonah in 1995 but I ask you where are SA backs from that ’95 tournament? Pensioned off long ago. Now old men with middle-age spreads.
The man has had a remarkable career and deserves RESPECT from SAFFAS, most of whom refuse to accept his talent.
69 test caps (with at least one more to come)and an important part of the RWC winning squad in 2003. The stats speak for themselves.
12 Mar 2007, 09:01 am
One of the better matches in the 6 nations.
Quite a few youngsters in Flood,Strettle and Geraghty stepped up and were well supported by the old hands in Catt and Tindal .
The French as usual have to **** things up by having an off day.
12 Mar 2007, 14:47 pm
I can’t believe some of the pundits and journalists suggesting after this game that Wilkinson should not get his place back.
I bet it was the same bunch of shallow ‘fair weather’ and ‘flavour of the moment’ fans that have taken to booing their team when things are not going well.
A few weeks ago Wilkinson made one of the most incredible comebacks in sporting history, not just rugby history.
One could argue that purely because he is a special player that he deserves his place, but I’m not going to.
The fact is that he performed as he did that day under incredible pressure. Flood and Geraghty had nothing to lose and everything to gain, as did the whole England team. The same people suggesting they leave Wilkinson out now, will be the same people cursing his replacements when they miss the crucial kicks to win tight games, and in case they hadn’t noticed, most top level internationals are tight games.
They all seemed to have forgotten that Hodgson was a running flyhalf and he had a good early run, notably against the Boks, and yet while he was number 10, England have had their worst run in history.
The French had a guy called Michalak who everyone ooed about, but he is nowhere to be seen now for a very good reason. The nature of the modern game is that players are studied with days of footage to look at, their weaknesses are exposed and their strenghs are nullified.
O’Driscol, when he first came on the scene, made regular stunning breaks, but now they are relatively rear. Does that mean he has got worse as a player? Of course not. It just means that teams know how to contain him.
These young players will be worked out and targeted, and after one bad game, the same people calling for them to replace Wilkinson, will be the same people calling for them to be dropped. What makes Wilkinson a great player, is that people know all about him, and yet he still, more often than not, comes out on top, and crucially, he has proven it in situations where others have been found wanting.
But hey, I’m Springbok fan, if England want to drop him fine. I’m sure the Boks would much rather be playing against Geraghty or Flood.
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