France 13 England 24

Anyone who doubted English resolve will have had their faith restored this evening as England beat their old rivals France at the Stade de France in front of a full capacity crowd. Sweet Chariot rang out clear and sweet above the French whistles but the French crowd had precious little to sing about.

The test came in the second half when we all sat waiting to see whether England could keep up the pressure for 80 minutes and not just 40. Richard Wigglesworth made sure the win was in the  bag with a last few minutes try to his absolute joy - after all it was his debut!

RFTG fav James Haskell was forced to leave the pitch with an ankle injury. It all looked very nasty but it was good to see him on the pitch celebrating with the team after the match.

France showed many glimpses of style and skill but England continually frustrated them and the English scrum was hugely stronger than the opposition. Not a good match for our friends from across the water.

Credit to the young French scrum half, Parra, though who played his heart out for most of the match before being replaced by Yachvili. Not bad for a 19 year old. At least he could get his kicks over, which is more than you could say for veteran Damien Traille.

Interestingly, tonights main official Steve Walsh was the referee who nearly lost England the World Cup in 2003 when as the 4th official he made a complaint against one of the England coaches which could have meant that points would have been deducted..... Was it may imagination or was he 'very nice' to England this time?

BBC Report

France: Heymans; Rougerie, Marty, Traille, Clerc; Trinh-Duc, Parra; Faure, Szarzewski, Mas, Nallet, Pape, Bonnaire, Dusautoir, Picamoles.
Replacements: Servat, Poux, Thion, Ouedraogo, Yachvili, Skrela, Floch.

England: Balshaw; Sackey, Noon, Flood, Vainikolo; Wilkinson, Wigglesworth, Sheridan, Regan, Vickery, Shaw, Borthwick, Haskell, Lipman, Easter.
Replacements: Mears, Stevens, Kay, Croft, Hodgson, Cipriani, Tait.