Mute the triumphal music, pack away the confetti, cram the top hat back on the crown of your head. There will be no slick victory procession to a Grand Slam of five wins for France in 2025. Winning away from home is no cakewalk at international level, and the rudest of wake-up calls for Les Bleus did not have to wait for the All Blacks at Eden Park, it arrived against England at their old cabbage patch, on a dank Saturday afternoon in West London.
It was a day for U-turns and sudden reversals of fortune. Ex-Wallaby and England maestro Eddie Jones was doing duty as part of ITV’s pitchside punditry team, and his commentary was as gnomic as the woollen hat on his head. As a coach Jones is glib, outspoken, and frequently controversial. As a pundit he was precisely the opposite: considered, sympathetic and pithy to the point of cryptic. The loudest voice in the room went quiet as a mouse.
French supremo Fabien Galthié may be forced into a reassessment of aims for the July tour of New Zealand. With away fixtures in Rome and Dublin still to come, there is a realistic prospect France could finish the Six Nations with a record of three wins and two losses. Building the mentality to win away from home in a hothouse atmosphere has suddenly become a priority, up close and personal.
The head coach was right to dismiss notions his team were ‘arrogant’ after the game. But the hauteur of a selection policy which means sidelining your best players for a tour of one of rugby’s global superpowers remains.
“It’s not their [France’s] style,” he said. “They’re not at all an arrogant team.
“[But] we need more consistency in open spaces, and maybe we didn’t need to score immediately – but maybe wait for one more ruck.
“It’s part of what we do, it’s part of the work that we do. We are an ambitious team, I think we demonstrated that again tonight.”
If Galthié is serious, he will want to expose his players to a level of pressure which matches that stated ambition, and provide proof-positive, not just wishful thinking the Top 14 is an ideal preparation space for international footy.
Meanwhile England head coach Steve Borthwick will be hoping his charges have finally turned a corner. Instead of finding a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as they have done for the majority of their last seven matches, the men in white discovered the resolution to win a game at the death, with a try in the 78th minute. It could be a Eureka moment in the development of this England team.
England reversed their back-row selection from the game in Dublin, starting with Ben Earl in his club spot on the open-side flank and an orthodox ball-carrying number eight in Tom Willis, and shifting to the ‘three sevens’ theory in the 53rd minute, with the introduction of Ben Curry for Willis. They were all the better for it, and on this occasion, England shaded the final half hour 19-15.
There were also signs England are developing two very tidy front-row units within their matchday 23, with Jamie George sitting between Fin Baxter and Joe Heyes in the bench trio and tight-head Will Stuart confirming his progress in the starting trifecta. With Asher Opoku-Fordjour or Afo Fasogbon still to be added, maybe even within the current World Cup cycle, there is every prospect ‘solid’ will turn to ‘formidable’ in due course.
Borthwick highlighted the value of that experience in his post-match comments.
“Today, we managed to score that try at the end and push the extra pass, and they [England] did that really well,” he said.
“I think you saw Ireland’s bench last week were terrific in the way they played the second half, tactically exceptional. And I thought today we did have real impact on the bench.
“Ben Curry came on and ran so hard. I think what was also different today was that experience that came on. We saw the way Jamie George came on and added, the way Elliot Daly and added. Two guys that between them rose our caps by about 170. They increased our average age as a team by two years. But they certainly brought that intelligent experience onto the grass.”
For most English supporters, the main point of interest was always going to be how the new firm of Fin and Marcus Smith would operate in their key playmaking positions at 10 and 15. ‘Smith & Smith’ may not pull up too many trees as a marketing brand, but it did the business when it mattered out on the field.
While England’s defence looks shaky out on the edges, the pairing of Fin & Marcus at least encourages them to believe with some justification they can score more tries than their opponents. Borthwick again:
“I was delighted they kept trying to score tries today.
“I’ve said many times now, I think the point of difference with this team is going to be the way they move the ball in attack and they’ve got to keep believing in themselves.
“I don’t know how many times I need to say how much trust, faith, and confidence I have in these players. How good I think they can be.
“We scored four tries against that defence, which is a very, very good defence.”
The idea on kick returns was to drop Earl into the backfield in between the brace of Smiths, bring the ball back to the middle and have both playmakers close to the ball on the next phase.
After Earl sets up the ruck on halfway, England have successfully split the field with Fin providing a first receiver to the left, and Marcus to the right. It presents a difficult conundrum for the French defence to solve as the attack can go both ways with equal conviction.
It was however, the England lineout attack which carried the greatest creative weight as the game progressed. There was a hint of things to come at the end of the first quarter.
Two Ollies are brought into the game within two phases off a short ball: first Lawrence of Bath, then Sleightholme of Northampton, while Fin and Marcus remain fully functional in attack on the third phase deep in the opposition 22. It is something the Saint does better than his Harlequins counterpart, bringing his outsides into play while staying alive to oil the wheels further down the phase count.
The effectiveness of the Northampton 10 while play is still in structure, and the potential bonus of his playmaking relationship with Marcus, was illustrated by a deep lineout attack which should have resulted in England’s third try.
Both Smiths have already handled as the attack moved across field from left to right, then Fin straightens the line to pop George through a hole off another short ball in reverse field. Had Marcus not overrun the pass on the next phase England must have made the go-ahead score – but the attacking possibilities of the two Smiths running in tandem are amply highlighted
Two of England’s second-half tries confirmed the flowering promise of the combination.
The animation of both England playmakers running towards the open side of the field, sends both of France’s two backfield defenders [full-back Thomas Ramos and scrum-half Antoine Dupont] scuttling in the same direction. That in turn strips away the protection for Louis Bielle-Biarrey on the left edge, and Fin knows the contest between the UBB wing and Tommy Freeman is one heavily-weighted in favour of his Northampton club-mate.
The same three actors were central players in England’s game-winning score from lineout.
With replacement wing Daly swinging around from the blind side, the unfortunate Bielle-Biarrey is suddenly confronted with an impossible choice between sticking tight to Daly, or shifting out on to the threat of Marcus Smith. He gets caught in no man’s land, Fin stays within the Northampton attacking discipline and passes short, and Daly finishes the move under the posts. That was game, set and match to England.
Jones did not look like he was enjoying life much as a telly pundit, even though he was back at his second home at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham. As the questions grew longer and more urgent, so his answers became more clipped and enigmatic. He was far more reticent about getting stuck into Borthwick or Galthié than he would have been had he been in direct opposition to either of them as a coach.
Both have food for thought from the events which developed at Twickenham. The brusque reality of winning away from home under intense pressure, in a hostile cauldron, will have been reinforced for France’s main man. The exposure to pressure changes even the best of people, and the potential value of France’s July tour of New Zealand was never more pointed.
Borthwick will be vastly encouraged by England’s new-found ability rescue a match they could so easily have lost, and pull it out of the fire in the last half hour, reversing the prevailing trend. His bench sparked, his replacements were timed right and the scrum was as tight as elastic. The two Smiths may not win any contests for branding, but they just may be able to play together in the same starting XV for their country. ‘When things are looking up, there is no point in looking elsewhere’.
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