Sarah Rendell’s report is here:
“It was a little bit nervy,” says Mitchell on the BBC. “Defence wins titles and that wasn’t really great today from us … but I thought our start was pretty good.
“They got us through the middle, which we had planned for, but I don’t think we delivered. I thought we were poor in edge defence, to be honest. I’d rather get this kind of feedback any day of the week … we’ll have a little bit of a celebration and get ready for the World Cup.”
That’s the lot from me. Well done England, well played France. That was close. See you at the World Cup …
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“It’s an amazing feeling,” says Sarah Bern. “It’s different every single time. Cannot thank the crowd enough, they make it so special for us. It’s an amazing group of girls who work so hard every day to come out with those awards.
“France are an incredible team. They were phenomenal. It came down to the last bite, which is amazing. It’s what viewers want to watch and it’s how we want to play.”
“Massive. I think that’s a Test match, innit?” says Megan Jones. “All going at each other. Full 80 minutes. I hope it was a good spectacle for the fans. Yeah, we work hard and it’s nice to get the reward.”
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England’s players are now taking their championship medals and are assembling on a hastily-assembled podium in the middle of the pitch. Aldcroft then drops the base of the trophy before the all-important lift … and there it is! Metallic ticker-tape and red “Red Roses” cowboy hats all round.
A richly deserved title for England, but far from a perfect performance today, which is rather in keeping with their whole tournament. It’s tough at the top, of course, and expectations are sometimes too high: but England will be disappointed they ultimately stumbled over the line, rather than closing out a dominant win.
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“Can you imagine trying to review that game?” says Simon Middleton, Mitchell’s predecessor. “I’m glad I don’t coach anymore.”
Italy v Wales takes place tomorrow due to the Pope’s funeral. But England are grand slam champions regardless.
“It was a proper Test match,” says Maggie Alphonsi on the BBC. “England should be proud of that, they had to dig deep to get that win. And they entertained 37,000 people in the stadium. It was a tough match, and that’s what you want before a World Cup. You have to grind it out.”
England captain Aldcroft speaks: “Honestly, I am so proud of all the girls’ efforts today. All the girls in the week who helped up prepare. Just so proud of the whole squad effort today. I think we really battled it out. Credit to France, they absolutely came at us. The speed they were playing at. But yeah, credit to the girls for hanging on.”
What was she thinking when France came back at the end? “Just giving clear direction and next job. That’s the most clear thing you can do in those moments. Everyone buying into that one thing we really want to go after. That’s the most clear thing that you can do in those moments.”
What have England learned? “I think just building that pressure. We need to keep our foot on the throttle and keep on going and going. The pressure is the main thing. I think a couple of drinks later. We will enjoy tonight.”
Zoe Aldcroft, England captain, is named player of the match. She doesn’t look deliriously happy which is understandable given the way that ended for England. It was a nervous finish and no mistake. But hats off to France for the way they fought back. They certainly forced England into the kind of match you absolutely want to avoid against Les Bleues.
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Full time: England 43-42 France
France knock the restart on! England win the grand slam! What a phenomenal comeback by the visitors: they have one final chance to run the ball back but Lina Queyroi knocks the ball on and England have a seventh Women’s Six Nations title in succession!
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Try! 78 min: England 43-42 France (Grisez)
Whoah! What a stunning finish by Grisez, charging down the French left! Bourgeois converts! France have a chance! We will have a restart, and one final opportunity for the visitors. Incredible scenes.
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77 min: A hint of a deliberate knock on by Arbey with England on the front foot? The officials decide the ball went backwards, and she’s off the hook.
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77 min: England chase on to a grubber kick deep into the French 22! France grab the ball and look to run it from under their own posts, more or less … You have to admire the ambition.
76 min: A cross-kick by England looking for Dow. Arbey is there too though, and that could easily have gone wrong … anyway it’s an England lineout, somewhat fortuitously.
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74 min: England’s Harrison now looks ponderous and is nearly charged down before sending a big garryowen up from the back field. There is more of a hint of England stumbling over the line here, but they are being put under concerted pressure by that famous French offloading game.
73 min: Menager is nearly in on the right wing! Sing makes a stunning tackle and forces her into touch! Lineout for England in their own 22. Aldcroft claims it and then a penalty arrives. Still, nervous moments for England …
Try! 70 min: England 43-42 France (Bourgeois)
The full-back touches down in the corner, after another strong multi-phase attack, and immediately spanks over a wonderful conversion! Eight points in it with eight or so minutes to go … This is dangerous for England if France can again get ball in hand with a bit of space.
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68 min: Chambon also on for France now, for Bourdon Sansus.
68 min: More tremendous offloading from France, carrying into the England 22 and committing defenders left, right and centre. But it’s lost forward eventually and England can clear.
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66 min: Arbey has a taste for this now and makes another carry on the French left wing. She is dragged into touch amid some understandable nervousness among the England defenders.
65 min: Galligan gets involved immediately but produces a forward pass, a little popped effort in the middle of the park. Nice idea though. France scrum.
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63 min: Galligan and Aitchison come on for England. The official attendance today is 37,573. No shortage of entertainment, and it looks like they’re going to see an England win.
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63 min: Menager makes a dart down the French right but she has a foot in touch. They are still looking to run the ball, however.
60 min: Into the final quarter. Can France cause a little more havoc in this England defence, or will Mitchell’s side make their superior power (and in theory, precision) count?
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Try! 58 min: England 43-28 France (Dow)
Is that the game? Is that the grand slam? England batter close to the France try-line with a collection of crushing carries. With plenty of defenders sucked into the middle, Harrison chucks a booming pass to the right wing, where Dow is lurking. Conversion missed but 15 points in it now.
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56 min: A scrum, England ball, for those fresh front rows. England muck up their possession but they get a scrum penalty courtesy of Bern.
54 min: Cokayne, Clifford and Bern all on for England. Packer and Rowland too. Riffoneau, Mwayembe and Bernadou are also on for France – so fresh front rows for both sides – and Berthoumieu is also on for the visitors.
Try! 51 min: England 38-28 France (Arbey)
Game over? No. Game on. What a finish from Toulouse’s Kelly Arbey! The 19-year-old wing takes a pass out wide and shrugs off poor challenges from Sing and Dow. Sheer pace and power. The try is converted, and we have 10 points in it again. Fair to say that both England defenders will be disappointed with their efforts but it was still a sensational finish.
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Try! 49 min: England 36-21 France (Aldcroft)
That’s another superbly athletic score from the England captain after her spectacular interception effort last week. She takes a sympathetic offload from Harrison and crashes over after an incisive England attack. That’s an important score given how threatening France had been looking, before the break and for the first 10 minutes of this half.
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47 min: France come again. This is looking increasingly worrying for England because the visitors are making virtually all the running in attack. Grisez is full of beans and makes an excellent jinking raid deep into home territory. England manage to scramble, eventually, and clear the danger. MacDonald comes off which, in truth, should have happened five minutes ago.
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46 min: Leicester have hammered Quins 40-7 in the Gallagher Premiership. Here is Michael Aylwin’s report:
45 min: A break in play because Claudia MacDonald has gone down with a twisted knee. On replay it looks a painful one: Vernier attemped a jazzy one-handed offload and then went to ground, accidentally falling on MacDonald’s right knee. Anyway, the England wing is having it strapped, and it looks like she wants to play on.
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44 min: It’s not been the start France wanted to the second half but on the plus side for them they are only 10 points down. A converted score and it’s game on. Now they storm down the right wing but Matthews does excellently to win the penalty with another breakdown steal. There are hints that France are dragging England into the game they don’t want to play, though – before half time and again now they are finding space to get the offloading game going.
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42 min: Grisez, the wing, smashes into a tackle and then snaffles some turnover ball after England move into the France 22. Looks like France have got away with that early penalty.
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41 min: Escudero embarks on a powerful run from the kick-off but France are penalised for obstruction. A perfect attacking platform for England early doors.
Second half kick-off
Go!
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Half time reading from Andy Bull:
Half time! England 31-21 France
The half ends with France on the attack again. Menager knocks on after a smooth French lineout … and the visitors will carry plenty of hope into the second half after a much better 20 minutes. England have missed 13 tackles, France 14, while England have made 277 attacking metres to France’s 275. Interestingly, 42 carries for England and 64 for France, which demonstrates how dangerous the offloading came can be from Les Bleues.
Try! 38 min: England 31-21 France (Menager)
An attacking lintout for France, who have certainly steadied le bateau in the last 10 or 15 minutes. Escudero makes one of several superb carries and then it’s worked out to Menager to run in France’s third try! Bourgeois converts with aplomb and it’s suddenly a 10-point game. They couldn’t, could they? The visitors are bringing tonnes of attacking threat but it looks like they’ll concede too many at the other end to seriously trouble England. Mind you, this French resurgence may spark some English nerves.
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37 min: England, as it stands, will finish top of the table on 28 points, nine above France in second.
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35 min: Les Bleues are back up to 15, Khalfaoui having served her 10 minutes in the sin bin.
34 min: Better from France. They move powerfully into England’s half with that familiar blend of power and silky offloading. Harrison is lucky not to be penalised before it’s taken back for a French scrum.
Try! England 31-14 France (Bourdon Sansus)
Oh no! England’s fly-half Harrison knocks on in-goal. Bourdon Sansus is alert to the opportunity, and jumps on the ball for France’s second try. Bourgeois smacks over an excellent conversion. An embarrassing one for Harrison but we’ve all been there.
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28 min: Arbez, in the England 22, is kicking for touch. For some reason she chooses to direct her effort to the far side of the pitch, to the French right, and predictably perhaps the ball is kept in by and England hand. Then it’s a knock-on by England and France have an attacking scrum.
26 min: France into the England 22 for perhaps the third time. Again they are turned over, this time Ward pouncing. Khalfaoui’s yellow will stay yellow. On BBC commentary Brian Moore questions if it was even should have been yellow card.
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Try! 23 min: England 31-7 France (MacDonald)
I think we can safely say that England’s grand slam is secure. There is an indecent amount of space for MacDonald to claim a pass out on the left wing, jink around a half-hearted attempted tackle and touch down.
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23 min: Yellow card for France! (Khalfaoui)
A high shot by Khalfaoui on Maud Muir. She is shown a yellow card and it’ll be a bunker review. Khalfaoui is in tears as she sits on the bench.
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22 min: Jones flings an expansive pass off her right hand to MacDonald on the left flank. MacDonald pins her ears back and sprints into space. France manage to scramble and arrest her progress (this time, anyway.)
20 min: Vernier is back having passed her HIA. England get the ball in hand again and scorch downfield, straight down the middle, with a tremendous carry by Jones. She kicks ahead but it squirts a little bit long, out of play in the in-goal area.
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Try! 17 min: England 24-7 France (Sing)
England now surge down the left wing. MacDonald finds Sing who kicks ahead. Bourdon Sansus clears for the visitors and England have a handy attacking lineout. England construct another powerful driving maul, sucking in defenders, then spin the ball left to right and Sing has another straightforward run-in. She touches down behind the posts and Harrison has an easy conversion.
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15 min: France rumble into the England 22 with some more progressive phase play. They are bringing plenty of attacking threat. But Botterman, again, is all over the French possession: Bourgeois goes to ground about five metres out and Botterman is there, competing legally but frantically for the ball. An England penalty is the seemingly inevitable result, and the Bristol Bears prop celebrates passionately. That was class – again.
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Try! 12min: England 17-7 England (Atkin-Davies)
That was nailed on once they won the lineout so close to the French line. It’s a textbook driving maul, that Simon Middleton would appreciate, and Atkin-Davies flops over the line. Tricky conversion missed.
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11 min: More good work from Botterman, turning over French ball when the visitors were building a momentum again. All of a sudden England win a penalty and have a lineout in the right corner.
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Try! 8 min: England 12-7 France (Sing)
Lovely score. Meg Jones creates this with England pushing into the French 22. She darts right to left and takes contact before reaching to neatly offload to Sing. The full-back has a simple task to finish with the defence hopelessly exposed. Harrison converts. Panic over?
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Try! 6 min: England 5-7 France (Arbez)
That’s what they can do! There’s a couple of lovely offloads as France work through the phases straight down the middle. The England defenders look a bit taken aback, and there seems to be plenty of space for the fly-half to dance over from close range. Vernier is off for an HIA. Bourgeois converts.
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Try! 4 min: England 5-0 France (Dow)
That didn’t take long. It’s great work from Botterman to take the ball aggressively to the line before offloading. That creates a bit of space behind and Harrison sends a grubber diagonally for the right-hand corner. Dow snaffles the excellent kick, skips around the defensive cover and that’s 5-0. Conversion missed.
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2 min: Aldcroft claims the kick-off with customary authority. Teani Feleu then knocks on a high England kick around halfway. England have the put-in at the first scrum. The ball is moved right and Sing chucks a poor pass in the direction of Dow. But it’s taken back for another scrum.
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First half kick-off!
Allez!
Unfortunately, we also need a quick blast of the relatively plodding “God Save the King.” C’est comme ça.
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The teams are out on the Twickenham pitch! Rugby is about to happen, but let’s have a stirring rendition of the La Marseillaise first. There are a few emotional expressions among the French players.
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“A lot of the decisions came down to who’s most consistent in the skill sets that we need,” John Mitchell tells the BBC of today’s selection.
“[Number] seven has obviously got to follow the ball … You’ll see us tighten up France a bit at lineout time in the attacking half … we’ll try and get there quick, and go to the edge.
“It’s pretty certain who’s going to be around [for the World Cup]. We’ve created healthy competition. It’s just creating a demand on everyone to be consistent on what they deliver … I have to make some hard decisions, but these girls will continue to fight.”
Then he signs off with: “Attacking defence wins titles. We’ll see what we get.”
(I think he said “attacking defence” and not “attack and defence”. Makes sense to me anyway.)
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A quarter of an hour or so until kick-off. Why not read Sarah Rendell’s report from England’s crushing win against Scotland last week?
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The BBC’s Sonja McLaughlan tells us that France’s XV have 373 caps among them, while England have 682.
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Katy Daley-McLean, on pundit duty, believes an England victory is not in doubt today. Confidence.
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There are two games to think about at Twickenham on Saturday, the one the Red Roses will play in, and the one they want to play in. The first is their grand slam decider against France, which kicks off at 4.45pm. The second – at the same venue, five months and one day later – is the World Cup final which, if everything goes as the team hopes at the Stadium of Light, Franklin’s Gardens, Ashton Gate and the other grounds they will visit between now and then, will be the next game they play at the home of English rugby.
Mitchell makes nine changes. The women’s world player of the year, Ellie Kildunne, is ruled out by injury so Gloucester-Hartpury’s Emma Sing will start at full-back.
Hannah Botterman and Maud Muir come back into the front row and Morwenna Talling returns at lock. Maddie Feaunati switches to No 7 with Alex Matthews slotting back in at No 8.
Natasha Hunt and Zoe Harrison are the half-backs, at No 9 and No 10 respectively, with Tatyana Heard also back in the centres.
France make two changes from the side that (relatively speaking) edged past Italy last weekend. Lea Champon starts for the first time in this championship, at No 7, while Charlotte Escudero returns on the blindside.
England: Sing; Dow, Jones, Heard, MacDonald; Harrison, Hunt; Botterman, Atkin-Davies, Muir, Talling, Ward, Aldcroft (capt.), Feaunati, Matthews. Replacements: Cokayne, Clifford, Bern, Galligan, Burton, Packer, Aitchison, Rowland.
France: Bourgeois; Grisez, Menager (co-capt.), Vernier, Arbey; Arbez, Bourdon Sansus; Teani Feleu, Champon, Escudero, Fall Raclot, Manaé Feleu (co-capt.), Khalfaoui, Bigot, Brosseau. Replacements: Riffoneau, Mwayembe, Bernadou, Zago, Berthoumieu, Maka, Chambon, Queyroi.
On Thursday, Mitchell insisted that Kildunne’s injury presents to concerns for the World Cup:
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Sarah Rendell’s big match preview:
“England are on the hunt for their seventh consecutive Women’s Six Nations title on Saturday but their toughest opponent yet in France stand in their way, who are also targeting their own grand slam success.
“France have been the runner-up to England in the past five Six Nations and the Red Roses have beaten their rivals in their last 14 meetings across all competitions. Twickenham will witness something special whoever wins.”
Preamble
Pressure is a privilege, so they say, and there is pressure on England at Twickenham today no matter how dominant they seem to be. The Red Roses may have won 24 matches in a row, and 33 consecutively in the Women’s Six Nations, but France have won four out of four in this campaign and Les Bleues now stand in the way of a seventh straight title, plus a grand slam, for John Mitchell’s side.
England ran in nine tries last weekend as they brushed Scotland aside – the wing Claudia MacDonald had a particularly impressive day with two tries, and collectively everything fell into place for this richly talented squad. But Mitchell has heavily rotated the lineup through the tournament and not everything has come easily in England’s four wins. Italy and Ireland presented problems and now France will be expected to provide the toughest examination yet.
It is World Cup year too, so there is an opportunity for individuals to cement their place in Mitchell’s tournament plans – or play their way out of contention if things don’t go as smoothly as home fans will hope. Team news and more coming up.
Kick-off at 4.45pm UK time.
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