England claimed a precious victory over Six Nations favourites France, with Elliot Daly’s try in the 79th-minute proving decisive. In a frantic, scrappy slugfest, the lead swapped hands three times in the final 10 minutes, with replacement prop Fin Baxter’s try giving England a narrow lead, only for France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey to dance in and seemingly deny the hosts. But England summoned the knockout blow on the penultimate passage of play as Daly went in for the try, holding off a despairing Antoine Dupont. Fin Smith, making his first start at fly-half, held his nerve with the conversion, and his team secured France’s restart and, with it, victory.
After England’s opening-round loss to defending champions Ireland, defeat would have surely sunk any hopes they had of contending for the title. Instead, they head into a meeting with Scotland in a fortnight’s time with a chance to reclaim the Calcutta Cup. Despite featuring plenty of mistakes, the match was a fitting conclusion to a frantic, scrappy slugfest, which saw no shortage of drama, with England finally getting the better of Les Bleus after six defeats in their past seven games.
In contrast to a frenetic finale, the scoreboard remained blank for the opening 29 minutes, most notable for French mistakes. England returned pointless from their one incursion into the France 22 as Yoram Moefana twice repelled Ollie Lawrence on the gainline. Fin Smith had been promoted to fly-half to grease England’s attack, but there were some stutters, with a couple of tame grubbers handing back scarce England possession. England resolutely kept in the fight, and Fin Smith’s punted chip into the corner was snaffled by Northampton team-mate Freeman, the first of five tries in 20 enthralling final minutes.
Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson described the match as a vintage performance and a display of unbelievable character and fight from the home side. In contrast, France lock Emmanuel Meafou suggested his team had forced too much “fancy” play and urged them to let the game happen by itself. The win has put England in a good position to challenge for the Six Nations title for the first time since 2020.
The lineups for the match included M Smith; Freeman, Lawrence, Slade, Sleightholme; F Smith, Mitchell; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Stuart, Itoje (capt), Martin, T Curry, Earl, and Willis for England. For France Ramos, Penaud, Barassi, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; Jalibert, Dupont (capt); Gros, Mauvaka, Atonio, Roumat, Meafou, Cros, Boudehent, and Alldritt started
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