England dominate hapless France
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| Captain Farrell in for the try |
Hey, all I know it's been a while since I did a rugby review, but with England taking on France in round 2 of the Six Nations I decided that it would be a good time to do another review seeing as it's Rugby World Cup year. The weekend's other matches were Ireland defeating Scotland in Edinburgh 22-13 which gave Ireland a big win considering that they lost to England last week and Wales after coming back Paris last week made it 2 out of 2 by defeating Italy in Rome 26-15.
These teams are playing against each other in the group stage of the World Cup later on in the year. England was coming in on a high after beating the second-ranked team in the world, Ireland in Dublin last week 32-20. They also had some changes with Courtney Lawes in for Maro Itoje and Chris Ashton coming into his first Six Nations start since 2013 replacing Jack Nowell. A win with a bonus point would take them to the top of the group.
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| Captain Owen Farrell looking to make it 2 out of 2 |
Meanwhile, France was looking to improve after they blew a 16-0 halftime lead to lose 24-19 to Wales. That was their 7th defeat in 8 matches. To resolve this, the French coach made six changes with Mathieu Bastareaud and Geoffrey Doumayrou starting in the Centre. Gael Fickou started on the wing. Demba Bamba, Yacouba Camara and Felix Lambey started in the forwards for them.
The game started fast for England as they scored their first try off a French knock-on by Guilhem Guiardo and Jonny May scored the first try off an Elliot Daly kick through the French defence. However, Farrell kicked it across the posts to make it 5-0. Then England had a penalty in front of the posts, and Farrell threaded the ball down the middle to make it 8-0 off a penalty kick. Then a minute later France had a penalty kick of their own, and Morgan Parra sent the ball through the middle and made it 8-3. England was awarded another penalty after interference by Bamba and Farrell sent the ball down the middle again to make it 11-3. May scored his second try after brilliant work off the lineout and sidestepped the French defender. Farrell hit the right post to make it 16-3.
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| Jonny scoring in the 67th second. |
England scored another try and May got his hat trick off another knock-on and Chris Ashton kicking it through the gap. Farell, this time, nailed the conversion to make it 23-3. France finally got a try after Huget ran through the England defence and Penaud ran in to score the try. Parra missed the conversion which made the score 23-8 England. England ended the first half off a Henry Slade try, and Farrell made it 30-8 at halftime.
France made a change at halftime with Huget going off for a concussion with Thomas Ramos Ramos coming on for him. Then there were 3 minutes of substitutions Mako Vinupola was substituted for Ben Moon for what looked like an apparent shoulder injury. Kruis was replaced for Joe Lanchbury, and Nathan Hughes came on. Also, Parra was off for Antoine Dupont. The last in the phase was that the French try-scorer Penaud was replaced by Romain Ntamack. England was given a penalty try as they broke free on an interception and on a grubber kick Ashton was tackled without the ball, and Fickou was sin-binned. This made it 37-8 to England.
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| Damian Penaud scores France's try. |
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| May scored England's first hat trick since Jonathon Joseph. |
After that, it was a comfort for England as they dominated possession and made France look at themselves hard at the end of the game. There will be questions asked in the French press in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, England will take a week off to get ready for the big game against Wales in Cardiff while France would have to entertain a match at home to Scotland. Jonny May was the man of the match and England with both bonus points are top of the table.
| Where to go now for France? |
That's all, and the next Rugby review will be when the games restart in two weeks time.
KRO Mark
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