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Tom Hamilton
England’s luck was going to change eventually, but few predicted it would come on this cold, sodden night in Twickenham against Antoine Dupont’s France.
For so long the England players and staff have been telling supporters to believe in the process, trust what they were doing. That was easier said than done. After their recent run of seven defeats in nine Tests — many in heartbreaking fashion — it has been easy to pick that apart. But on this dreary February evening, the old stadium was bouncing once again, having seen England finally wrestle the balance of the match back in their favour.
Finally, it was England who struck at the death and claimed the victory, and it is the familiarity of England’s painful predicament heading into those final moments that makes this a win of incredible importance.
“The ceiling for this team is very, very high. Unfortunately, you take some pain along the way as you’re building a team,” England head coach Steve Borthwick said.
It ended in jubilation, but that progress wasn’t always apparent on Saturday.
England got themselves in front in the 70th minute as Fin Baxter crashed over, and Fin Smith converted. All was well. Then came the inevitable French fightback. They had already been so profligate but threatened to score whenever they got the ball swinging around their backs. They scored in the 75th minute through a glorious try which went through the hands of just about every player on the field, and suddenly, England were on the precipice. We’ve been here before.
In seven of their last nine matches, there’s been a familiar story of England putting themselves in a winning position after an hour, only to fall away. The echoes of past heartbreaks were unavoidable. It’s been something Borthwick has tried to change — it had been their albatross — and after their defeat in Ireland last week, it seemed like whatever they tried, England would lose that final period.
This time, though, it clicked.
The substitutions worked, and as England approached France’s 22, six points down, with two minutes left on the clock, they kept their heads. They turned to muscle memory, and the lineout — shaky earlier in the match — held firm, the platform solid, and then in the blink of an eye, Elliot Daly scored and Fin Smith added the extras. They held on to the restart, Fin Smith hoofed it into touch and the whole place exhaled. Job done.
Phew.
Everything that went wrong against Ireland, went right against France. Borthwick’s selections worked; the bench did what was required.
Fin Smith was outstanding at fly-half, Ollie Sleightholme’s effort was relentless on the wing, and Tom Willis laid the platform in the back-row. Then the substitutions clicked. Jamie George’s introduction after 61 minutes brought stability to a shaky lineout — three times they lost it on Luke Cowan-Dickie’s throw — and the front-row managed to go toe-to-toe with their more experienced opposite trio. Ollie Chessum made the desired impact, Ben Curry again tackled anything and everything, and then came Daly’s final flourish.
Any assessment of England’s win does need a caveat. France will never make this many handling errors again. Uncharacteristic doesn’t do their profligacy justice.
Dupont, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Damien Penaud and Peato Mauvaka were all guilty of dropping passes with the tryline gaping throughout the match. Three of those opportunities came in the first half and they should have been 20 or so points up at half time. Instead at the break it was 7-7 as Bielle-Biarrey’s try was cancelled out by Ollie Lawrence — complete with the mother of all hand-offs on Thomas Ramos.
“We got the oopsies, didn’t we? Every time we got near the tryline we seemed to just drop the ball,” France coach Shaun Edwards said afterwards.
“I’ve never seen that happen before. The French lads are normally magnificent handlers of a rugby ball.”
Ramos kicked France ahead in the second half but it was Fin Smith’s pinpoint crosskick to Tommy Freeman which saw England fight back to 12-13. You could hear audible groans in the Twickenham crowd when Fin Smith hoisted the ball into the air, but then Freeman plucked it, dotted it down, and all was well in the world again.
Borthwick’s bench then made desired impact and despite Marcus Smith struggling from the tee — missing the conversion off Freeman’s try and a later penalty — Baxter crashed over after 70 minutes and Fin Smith added the extras. Engalnd believed, only for France to score their wonderous end-to-end try with five minutes left and then it felt like we were watching the same movie once again. Only for Daly to change the record and put the final flourish on a slightly bewildering match.
England must look to this being potentially a foundational victory. Itoje described them as “brave [and] ballsy” afterwards, and also pointed to the need to improve their accuracy in the set piece and in attack. That’s fair, and they can take immense heart from this. You can forgive them if they give France’s wastefulness scant regard tonight.
This was essential in snapping the losing habit. The final quarter was managed well, and turning this arm-wrestle back into their favour will do wonders for their self-belief. But up next is Scotland, who have won their last four Calcutta Cup clashes. That’s the next challenge.
Win that in a fortnight, and this victory against France will be the start of something promising for England. They simply cannot let this be another foundational moment that’s passing them by.
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