England begin to sniff Grand Slam
England kept their Grand Slam hopes alive by beating France at Twickenham yesterday. In a physical, closely fought encounter, Fullback Ben Foden scored the only try of the game shortly after halftime, leaving England as the only unbeaten side left in the competition.
The Twickenham atmosphere was electric from the start; a rousing rendition of Jerusalem rang out even before the National anthems, the home faithful fully expecting to see their team keep their unbeaten record intact.
England immediately set out on the front foot from the kickoff. Dan Cole dominated the first scrum, setting up a touchline kick for Flood after a momentary scuffle with his opposite man, Thomas Domingo.
However, the French immediately struck back through scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili. Having taken the ball cleanly from the kickoff, The England backs decided to try and run the ball out of their own twenty-two and were pinged by Irish Referee George Clancy in the shadow of their own posts.
Two more well earned penalties on 12 and 17 minutes, gave England a 9-3 lead through two more Toby Flood kicks. The game was once again level when Nick Easter and Tom Wood were penalised by Clancy.
England suffered a blow when Sheridan was forced to limp slowly from the field. He’d been dominating opposite number Nicolas Mas. Replacement Alex Corbisiero struggled to find his feet early on and England were the happier side going in at halftime, having hung on to go in level after Yachvili missed a difficult touchline attempt.
Martin Johnson must have said something at halftime as a totally different England side emerged from the tunnel after the interval. The next five minutes would change the whole course of the game.
Man of the Match Tom Palmer charged down a French kick, giving England possession in the French twenty-two. The ball was shunted along and cannoned off the chest of Mark Cueto, it somehow found its way into the hands of the determined Ben Foden, who after showing a skilful dummy, powered over from 5 metres out, giving England a well deserved lead. Flood missed the ensuing conversion, only his second miss in his last 39 attempts, showing how far he has come on recently.
England went on to dominate the next few minutes. We thought we’d seen another ‘swallow dive’ try from Ashton; however Clancy ruled the last pass to be forward.
The crowd were witness to two records shortly afterwards. Firstly, Flood hobbled off, being replaced by Twickenham’s favourite son, Jonny Wilkinson. His first act was to slot a 45 metre penalty, taking him to 1190 career points, and thus overtaking Dan Carter. (Who had had the cheek of taking this record of him in the first place) Then, on came Steve Thompson, replacing Dylan Hartley, equalling Brian Moore’s record for most Appearances by an England hooker (64).
The French did have chances to trim the lead, Yachvili missing a simple penalty, the ball rebounding off of the post. Les Bleus almost scored through a Trinh-Duc grubber kick but Winger Rougerie failed to gather up the ball, spilling it forward.
A fairly nervy ten minutes remained for England but they negotiated them with skill and maturity as a team. One thing if for certain: it wasn’t pretty, but they got the job done and all good sides know how to win ugly.
England entertain the Scot’s in two weeks time, which should be a straightforward affair and then, if all goes to plan, will be playing for the Grand Slam in Ireland the following Saturday.
