As temperatures plummeted at Twickenham to near-freezing, an extremely important Six Nations rugby match was played. This match was a potential Six Nations decider with England, the leaders in the table at the time, playing against a French side looking to pick up their first win of tournament. With the likes of Scotland, Wales and Ireland snapping ‘hot on the heels’ of England, this match was surely an important one.


The national anthems were sung with pride, the French national anthem being a particularly lively song, and the loud English crowd more than matched the French support with ‘God save the Queen’ ringing in the ears before the whistle blew. England won the toss and decided to kick, and the game was under way.


The match was extremely physical, with the likes of Bastareaud and Tuilangi clashing in the centres as well as Picamoles, Robshaw, Dusautoir, and Lawes all large physical players as well. The game was scrappy, constant mistakes made by both teams, particularly at the beginning of the game. But as the game grew on, the mistakes became less, and both teams started playing in almost ‘full-flow’. Kicks were successfully converted by Owen Farrell (3) and Morgan Parra (1) coming towards the end of the first half when suddenly, the ball was flung out wide, from behind the half way line by French centre Bastereaud. Wesley Fofana received the ball and managed to break through tackles of Courtney Lawes and Chris Ashton, he then side stepped Joe Marler and broke away at high speed towards the try line. Not even England pace-man Chris Ashton could catch him up, and neither Ben Youngs as the French number 12 kept on running, he then placed the ball over the try line with ease to score a spectacular individual try (Morgan Parra kicking over the conversion). The half ended with line breaks through ‘pick-and-go runs’ from many rucks and scrums by the France Number 8 Louis Picamoles, who looked particularly dangerous.


As the second half began, England’s intensity of play stepped up. Manu Tuilangi looked extremely dangerous, with many line breaks and good runs with the ball, as England in general picked up in their lineout success rates, and in-play kicking, gaining huge amounts of territory. Although, the main factor keeping France in the game was the extremely powerful scrumaging, typical for this French side, with the powerful, experienced French player Nicolas Mas at tight-head prop getting the better of English prop Joe Marler. The French got into advanced positions on the field from the penalties won from the scrums – the French support were ecstatic by this, shouting the traditional ‘allez les bleus’ every time a scrum was awarded. However, England won a penalty at a kickable distance, especially for a kicker of Owen Farrell’s stature, which was then successfully converted to give England a small lead of 12 points to 10. The kick gave England a great lift for the hard work over the long, physical game, but also gave France a motive to retain their victory in the first half.


Soon after the centre kick was taken, England came back into an attacking position from a turnover ball from the French ruck. The ball came loose and (unfortunately for the French side) fell into the hands of 120kg, fast, threatening, powerful Manu Tuilangi who had blood trickling down the side of his face and down his shirt! He ran easily past French winger Vincent Clerc to score a brilliant try, which was not converted by Owen Farrell, who pulled a muscle during the kick and was substituted for Toby Flood, who managed to convert another 2 kicks with a 100% success rate to give England an unassailable lead. Although the French substitute Michalak managed to convert a kicking opportunity, the game ended with England on the front foot, and the French come back falling short.


Captain Chris Robshaw was named man of the match for his hard work in the back row (Although, I would have personally chosen Manu Tuilangi) as England sealed their 4th consecutive win and 100% record in the Six Nations.

England player ratings:
15 Goode- 7
14 Ashton- 8
13 Tuilagi- 10
12 Barritt- 8
11 Brown- 7
10 Farrell- 8
9 Youngs- 7
1 Marler- 8
2 Hartley- 7
3 Cole- 6
4 Launchbury- 6
5 Parling- 7
6 Lawes- 8
7 Robshaw- 9
8 Wood- 8


France player ratings:
15 Huget- 7
14 Clerc- 7
13 Bastareaud- 8
12 Fofana- 9
11 Fall- 7
10 Trinh-Duc- 7
9 Parra- 8
1 Domingo- 9
2 Kayser- 7
3 Mas- 9
4 Samson- 5
5 Maestri- 6
6 Nyanga- 6
7 Dusautoir-8
8 Picamoles- 9