England suffered a 53-10 defeat by France in a record home defeat at Twickenham, eliminating them from Six Nations title contention and a dangerous reality check for coach Steve Borthwick’s rebuilding project.
Trailing 27-3 at halftime – their highest halftime deficit at Twickenham in any fixture – they were in the midst of a full-blown crisis on Saturday, having been torn apart in front.
Thomas Ramos, Thibaud Flement and Charles Olivon had crossed with alarming ease and England were completely lost as their defending, kicking, breakdown and discipline exposed fault lines.
The arrival of Owen Farrell and Alex Mitchell off the bench early in the second half saw a fightback that saw Freddie Steward score a try, but it was short-lived as Flament, Olivonne and Damien Peynaud put France ahead.
The gulf between the rivals was embarrassing as the World Cup hosts recorded their first Six Nations win at Twickenham since 2005, a remarkable comeback after being on the sidelines for most of the tournament.
And it only gets tougher for Borthwick’s men because, after facing a team ranked second in the global rankings, they must travel to Dublin next Saturday to face Grand Slam-chasing Ireland Sake, who has captured the peak.
Marcus Smith did everything he could, after picking out Farrell at fly-half, but with his forwards at every turn he was powerless to stop the collapse.
“Obviously you have to give a lot of credit to France and they are clearly a world-class team,” said Borthwick.
“We are really disappointed with that performance, there were a lot of things we wanted to do but we couldn’t execute.
“I think we lost the bump in both lines, attack and defence. We knew they had immense power and unfortunately we didn’t counter it. When we attacked they were able to dominate. but there is a lot of work
“We got exposed today. I thought we would know where we are, there is a huge gap between us and the top teams in the world. I don’t think it matters what I thought [the gap] First was, I think we understand where we are and what we have to do.
For all the talk of England playing with pace, it was France who got off the blocks and they were away when lock Paul Willemse evaded a tackle, Ethan Dumortier sending Ramos into the left corner.
Ramos added a penalty to reward another Les Bleus attack and with only 10 minutes on the clock it was already looking bleak for the hosts.
England were affected by their discipline at the breakdown and apart from a blistering run by the stewards, they struggled to make any mark as it started raining.
Antoine Dupont grew in influence as he weaved his magic around the ruck but it was the strength of François Kross and Flament that did the damage for the next try.
Flement crossed in the 26th minute but it was too easy for Lock as the passive England went into touch.
And their scrum defense was badly exposed in injury time of the first half when Gregory Aldrit burst forward and brought down Olivone, seeing the blue shirt lined up in support.
Damien Peynaud of France celebrates as he runs to score his fifth try. (Photo by Charlotte Wilson / Offside / Offside via Getty Images)
England needed to act quickly and there was hope when Smith had a great kick on the run for Max Malins but Wing was knocked over the line.
It was now the French defense that was disintegrating and after waves of attacks they were riding tackle to slip with Steward.
England quickly renewed their attack but the fightback faltered when a ferocious bounce betrayed their backfield defence, allowing Romain Ntemac to flick the ball towards Flament who scored.
More misfortune followed when Smith was carried over his line by Dupont as he covered for the kick and Ollivaughn brought the ball down when he tried to put the final nail in England’s coffin before two attempts by Ving Peynaud. Let go
France coach Fabian Galthy was in tears afterwards.
“Yeah, I realize what we’ve done. I’ve been coming here since I was 20. “We played the way we wanted to play. We didn’t know exactly how but we had that drive. And doing it here, in context – it didn’t happen by accident. We are working closely with these players. This shows that we are on the right track.
“It’s tough for them when you know how important rugby is in England.”
Wales won the battle of the spoons
Italy is headed for another familiar last place in the Six Nations.
The Azzurri paid the price for yet another slow start and then lost two players to the sin-bin, suffering a 29-17 defeat to Wales in a match billed as Saturday’s wooden spoon decider.
It was a fourth straight defeat in this championship for Italy, who need a win in the final round in Scotland next weekend to have a chance of avoiding the bottom of the standings.
Chances are, however, that the Italians will remain in the Six Nations for the eighth straight year and for the 18th time in 24 editions since joining the Northern Hemisphere tournament in 2000.
Their 25th consecutive Six Nations home loss had its origins in a second, now-trademark sloppy first half, with Wales – powered by the brilliant Rhys Webb on his first Test debut in three years – leading 10–0 after 10 minutes and a Leading 22-3 going into halftime.
Italy’s number 8 Lorenzo Cannon gave Wales the man advantage in the 34th minute after Maul was pulled down on the try line to concede a penalty try and earn a yellow card.
They then benefited from a 46th-minute sin-binning of home winger Pierre Bruno, who was on for a go-ahead with his left arm across the throat of Wales prop Wyn Jones.
Webb sent in No. 8 Tulupe Flateau for a bonus-point fourth try in the 50th, which was enough to give him his first points of the championship and the first win in Warren Gatland’s second reign after earlier losses to Ireland, Scotland and England. Was.
Gatland said of Wales after re-rotating their line-up, “There’s still a lot of growth in this team, in terms of where they’re going.”
Many players must have learned a lot about themselves today and this Italy team was not bad.
Wales, who have to travel to Paris to face France in their last match, are on five points and Italy are on one.
The Italians again played some exciting things, with flanker Sebastian Negri and center Juan Ignacio Breaux scoring tries they at least deserved to equalize for Wales for the greater part of the game at the Stadio Olimpico in the second half.
Breaux’s try in the 68th set up a frantic finish and Italy had enough possession and territory to score two more tries and secure victory. Poor handling after several line breaks cost him dearly.
Gatland had particular praise for Webb, who – in his first Six Nations start since 2017 – controlled the game with his kicking and made some darting breaks around the fringe.
It was his kick into the left corner that got a lucky bounce and was collected by winger Rio Dyer for the opening try in the ninth minute.
“His decision-making was excellent,” Gatland said of Webb. “He didn’t force anything and put us on the front foot.”
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