Super Saturday, Game 3: England v France

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ENGLAND v FRANCE
Saturday 21 March 2015
KO: 17:00
Twickenham Stadium

Referee: Steve Walsh (ARU)
AR1: John Lacey (IRFU)
AR2: Leighton Hodges (WRU)
TMO: Ben Skeen (NZR)

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A. Teams

ENGLAND
 
15. Mike Brown (Harlequins, 36 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 8 caps)
13. Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 10 caps)
12. Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints, 11 caps)
11. Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 7 caps)
10. George Ford (Bath Rugby, 10 caps)
09. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 46 caps)

01. Joe Marler (Harlequins, 30 caps)
02. Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints, 65 caps)
03. Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 49 caps)
04. Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers, 22 caps)
05. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 37 caps)
06. James Haskell (Wasps, 57 caps)
07. Chris Robshaw (captain, Harlequins, 36 caps)
08. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 16 caps)

16. Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 21 caps)
17. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 19 caps)
18. Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons, 9 caps)
19. Nick Easter (Harlequins, 50 caps)
20. Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 35 caps)
21. Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens, 20 caps)
22. Danny Cipriani (Sale Sharks, 11 caps)
23. Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby, 19 caps)

FRANCE

15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Gaël Fickou, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Jules Plisson, 9 Sébastian Tillous-Borde, 8 Loann Goujon, 7 Bernard le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Alexandre Flanquart, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Vincent Debaty.

Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Rabah Slimani, 18 Uini Atonio, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Damien Chouly, 21 Rory Kockott, 22 Rémi Talès, 23 Mathieu Bastareaud.

B. Head to Head

85 Played 85

45 Wins 33

33 Losses 45

7 Draws 7

147 Tries 135

78 Conversions 77

151 Penalties 90

22 Drop Goals 33

1,218 Points 1,036

That was a great passage of play.

Beautiful offload.

Breadvan wrote: We just love to make it difficult for oursleves..

in fairness to france that was some good play for that try

we're kicking far too much again

lovely play by youngs

Beautiful

was it tighthead who wanted youngs off in the first half?

Yes, get in there.

nathan wrote:

Breadvan wrote: We just love to make it difficult for oursleves..

in fairness to france that was some good play for that try

Agree but from a Ford chargedown.

this game is incredible. this whole weekend is incredible. never seen anything like it in 6Ns history. amazing.

Huge gap left by the French defence, easy points after a good inside pass.

this is going to be very close at the end

nathan wrote:was it tighthead who wanted youngs off in the first half?

he has more than redeemed himself for that french try. once he gets ball in hand he is great. it's the picking it up and distributing that he isnt quite as good or quick at.

best england player so far though

Soft again. Incredible number of long range tries from the English

What a crazy game the French defence has been poor in this game but in previous games they were solid. Youngs is havine a field day no one there to stop him.

quinsforever wrote:

nathan wrote:was it tighthead who wanted youngs off in the first half?

he has more than redeemed himself for that french try. once he gets ball in hand he is great. it's the picking it up and distributing that he isnt quite as good or quick at.

best england player so far though

to be fair to him in that instance, it came out off a boot and he panicked and passed it to lawes

amazing stat. england averaging almost 8 metres every carry! 66 carries, 500metres gained! what an open game.

Crazy game. There will be a few exhausted players soon!

nathan wrote:

quinsforever wrote:

nathan wrote:was it tighthead who wanted youngs off in the first half?

he has more than redeemed himself for that french try. once he gets ball in hand he is great. it's the picking it up and distributing that he isnt quite as good or quick at.

best england player so far though

to be fair to him in that instance, it came out off a boot and he panicked and passed it to lawes

fair enough

bad decision from Owens

Owens is completely wrong there.

very very bad decision owens. ball never touched the ground

Hartley has a better game today, especially at the lineout.

Hopefully Youngs will play as well

Get in

What a game.

Bollix, its back on again

Barrell looks like a donkey but England get away with a try great pass by Ford.

can anyone work out the points diff? im too lazy!

france going to get some yellows soon and then the floodgates maybe will open...

ah we need 10 more

bet we man sausage it up

quinsforever wrote:

Notch wrote:England are definitely favourites to win the championship with 40 minutes to go. Can't see France doing much to trouble them second half.

nice try. no way are england favourites imo. that was the craziest half of rugby i've seen in a long time.

england still need 15 points more than france, and only in 1 half. thats still a big ask. i dont see france rolling over the way scotland or italy did.

Agree. Scotland were poor - Italy worst I've seen them.
France could still win the game!

Mental day of rugby

Regardless we've still put 40 points on France which is decent.

Errors are costing us but hey at least they are trying to play some good rugby

I knew it was right to pick Nowell over Watson. Said it all along

Today is turning into a disaster

How was that not a trip?

Haskell you idiot

Talking of donkeys the France FB made a big mistake. Haskell should be off

Nachos Jones_1 wrote:How was that not a trip?

i think it was and deserves a yellow

Flaming haskell

10 minutes for you Haskell

wheels about to fall off?

This is the craziest game... Haskell with a totally pointless trip now. Yellow card. They still need two more scores

France- sort yourselves out! You're an omnishambles.

Brainless.

nathan wrote:

Nachos Jones_1 wrote:How was that not a trip?

i think it was and deserves a yellow

Just being desperate for Ireland to win the 6N

Yellow justified.

oh hask. silly boy.

what a game!

Robshaw down? don't think ive ever seen that!

nathan wrote:wheels about to fall off?

That would make two teams out there. Can't believe how bad France- and can't believe they've been allowed to score more than 20 because of it!

To be honest Haskell should have been replaced by wood at HT

Clear yellow.

This is absolute madness.

But England are currently in second, so that is a dose of sanity.