England’s Roses not in full bloom but set record

England came back twice to edge France 19-16 and set a national record for consecutive victories in a shaky start to their Six Nations rugby title defence at Twickenham yesterday.

England’s 15th straight win dating to 2015, and 14th under coach Eddie Jones, was easily their poorest display in the streak.

The English defence was narrow, their set-pieces stressed, and they missed 24 tackles, almost twice as many as France.

The English were sluggish and sloppy until replacements in the last 15 minutes made a difference.

“We can’t get much uglier than that,” Jones said. “For some reason, we sat back in the first half, we weren’t our usual urgent selves. Maybe the preparation I gave the team wasn’t good enough.

“It was quite strange. At halftime, we weren’t even panting. It was like we hadn’t even played a game of rugby. So the second half was much better.”

France were leading 16-12 after scoring the first try through replacement prop Rabah Slimani. But minutes later, Slimani was penalised for collapsing a scrum and England set up an attacking lineout.

When the drive stalled, James Haskell, on for six minutes, charged upfield. Jack Nowell, on for two minutes, took the ball to the line. Then first-five Owen Farrell fed Ben Te’o, on for two minutes, in a gap and he burst past three defenders to score the match-winning try with 10 minutes to go.

England held on with more authority than they showed in the previous 70 minutes, and win No 15 eclipsed the record streak of the 2002-03 side.

France ended the run of Martin Johnson’s team in a warm-up for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and these Tricolors looked like they were capable of repeating history.

Led by relentless No 8 Louis Picamoles, France’s offloads created deep inroads into England.

Halfback Baptiste Serin and wings Virimi Vakatawa and Noa Nakaitaci were always threatening.

In yesterday’s other Six Nations match, Scotland opened their campaign with a tense 27-22 win over Ireland at Murrayfield.

What was eye-opening was how Scotland led 21-8 by halftime, with three tries of verve and genius. Murrayfield was delirious. Then it was silenced, as Ireland inevitably roared back in front by a point. But, crucially, the Irish missed chances to bury Scotland.