England secured their first grand slam in 13 years by beating France 31-21 in Paris.
 |
| England celebrate winning the 2016 Six Nations |
Tries from Danny Care, Dan Cole and Anthony Watson, along with four penalties from Owen Farrell kept the French out, despite Maxime Machenaud kicking seven penalties himself to keep the French in the contest.
Just six months after being unceremoniously dumped out of their home world cup, Eddie Jones has done a remarkable job with a side that is still very young in terms of International experience.
"I'm very proud of the boys." Jones said afterwards. "It's a great achievement by the team. I always had confidence in them.
"Dylan Hartley has been fantastic and he has done a very good job. Billy Vunipola, Mike Brown and Owen Farrell have done very well assisting him along with James Haskell and Chris Robshaw. That nucleus has been very strong."
Care struck first, picking up the ball from an unattended ruck and darting under the posts, before Cole took the next opportunity. Spinning the first tackle then pushing through the second, he powered under to give England a lead of 11 points.
Machenaud converted a brace of penalties as the sides went in 12-17 at the break.
France came back out the stronger of the two sides and Virimi Vakatawa almost put the French level only for a brilliant last-ditch tackle by Jack Nowell to stop him 5 metres from the try line.
The English struck next however. Billy Vunipola, took the ball from a scrum and passing to Ben Youngs, sent Watson away with a perfect kick for him to go over in the corner.
Nerves still ran and after it appeared like Hartley was knocked out cold and was stretchered off, Farrell made a monster kick from halfway to give England a lead of seven.
Xavier Chiocci was sent to the sin bin and Farrell stroked over the resulting penalty to let England finally celebrate.
Comments
Post a Comment