England 19
France 16
A TRY FROM Ben Te’o on his Six Nations debut helped holders England snatch a comeback win against France in their opening game.
England trailed 16-12 with less than 10 minutes to play at Twickenham until former Leinster favourite Te’o bashed through the French cover for the decisive score.
Guy Noves’ men looked in the mood for an upset early on and the hosts were fortunate not to be punished when Mike Brown appeared to take Noa Nakaitaci out after he chipped the ball towards the try-line.
A yellow card for Jonny May on 12 minutes allowed Camille Lopez put France 6-3 ahead with the second of his three first-half penalties. However, England were never overrun and kept pace through Farrell and Elliot Daly penalties to leave the sides deadlocked at 9-9 at half-time.
Having booted over the last score of the first period, Daly was close to opening the second half with a try, but his burst for the corner was ruled out by the TMO as he caught touch on the way.
Farrell kicked his side into the lead for the first time, but on 60 minutes he had a hand in France’s breakthrough try, holding back from a loose ball when Les Bleus attacked with a penalty advantage. And with France in impressive offloading form, Rabah Slimani ran over the first try of the game less than a minute later thanks to slick hands from openside Kevin Gourdon.
Te’o was introduced from the bench for the final 11 minutes and his impact was practically instant. James Haskell gave England some good forward momentum and when Farrell looked over his left shoulder, he found Te’o running the perfect line to power through the French tackles and score.
Farrell tacked on the extras to leave three between the sides and what faint chance France might have had fizzled away in the last minute when Jean-Marc Doussain failed to find touch with the visitors’ final penalty.
Scorers
England
Try: B Te’o
Conversion: O Farrell (1/1)
Penalties: O Farrell (3/4) E Daly (1/1)
Cards: J May (yellow ’12)
France
Try: R Slimani
Conversion: C Lopez (1 /1)
Penalties: C Lopez (3/4)
Subscribe to The42 Rugby Show podcast here:
