England 23-20 France

ENGLAND rescued their Six Nations campaign by playing their best rugby since the 2019 World Cup and edged Les Bleus at the end of a seesaw game.

France started where they left off four weeks ago with mercurial scrum-half Antoine Dupont scoring a fabulous try in the second minute.

England coach Eddie Jones said that they expected France to open fast and had developed a gameplay to deal with the opening blitz.

“We expected France to come out strong and our players responded well and kept their cool.”

Jones’s side battered the French defence with a wave of 15-phases before Anthony Watson ran in a try in the far corner to celebrate his 50th cap and his fourth try in the championship.

Captain Owen Farrell held his nerve and kicked the extra points from the touchline to bring the scores level.

England have rightly come in for criticism of their high penalty count during their opening three games but here they managed to go 25 minutes before being penalised.

It was France who conceded two kickable penalties to allow England to take a six-point lead before the home side gifted the visitors three points in a desperate rearguard defence.

Les Bleus were flying now and a surprise line-out thrown to the backs caught England napping and winger Damian Penaud touched down in the corner.

A grateful home team went in at half-time just four points behind a turbo-charged France.

England were using the battering ram, rather than the rapier to try to blast through an obdurate Les Bleus defence.

But France only managed to score three points from a penalty in the second half, as the home side strained every sinew to rescue the game.

After the sustained criticism of Maro Itoje for the five penalties he alone conceded in the defeat by Wales, all eyes were on the big forward.

“I did not want to lose my bite and what makes my game. But it’s a balancing act and adapting to what the referee is doing,” Itoje said afterwards.

He more than made amends as he largely kept Dupont under wraps, but also scored the last-gasp try for the victory.

With just five minutes left England kicked a penalty to touch to set up a line-out and driving maul. Itoje picked up the ball and managed to dive through two challenges to land on the line.

Referee Andrew Brace called it no try, but the TMO disagreed and England had again beaten France in the closing minutes of a fluctuating test match where the lead was exchanged four times.

Head coach Fabien Ghalthie praised his side for playing in a great match, but pointed to a second loss against England in the closing minutes of the game.

“We just gave away too many penalties in the second half and need to learn from this defeat,” Ghalthie said.

French captain Charles Ollivon was philosophical after the game and said he was not worried by the three-point loss.

“We lost by three points and played really well. We will need to improve for our game against Wales next week.”

Jones has kept faith with the Saracens’ players at the heart of his side and they finally played themselves into form, with Farrell and Itoje giving commanding performances against Les Bleus.

“I thought Maro was sensational today, especially given the criticism he had been getting. This was a real testament to his character.”

Jones also waxed lyrical about the display given by man-of-the-match Tom Curry.

“Curry is developing his attacking game and he has been watching videos of players like All Black great Richie McCaw to improve his own game.”

With one game to play against Ireland next Saturday, Jones explained what his side were trying to do.

“We sensed post-World Cup that the game will become more open with the lawmakers wanting more entertaining rugby and that’s what we are trying to do.”