England run rampant over the Tricolors
Jonny May ran in a first-half hat-trick of tries as England thrashed France 44-8 at Twickenham on Sunday to make it two wins from two in this year's Six Nations.
England's 36-point margin of victory was only just shy of their largest against Les Bleus – a 37-0 win in France's first match at Twickenham back in 1911.
May opened the scoring in the second minute as England, for the fifth Test in a row, had a try inside the first three minutes.
And the half ended with outside centre Henry Slade crossing for England's fourth try to leave them in complete command at 30-8.
Jacques Brunel, the France coach, made six changes to his starting XV following the 24-19 loss to Wales last weekend, but this humiliation meant his side had now lost 10 of their last 13 Tests. Barely had the anthems finished when France's bid for a first Six Nations win at Twickenham since 2005 was rocked by May's opening try.
France captain Guilhem Guirado knocked on and England full-back Elliot Daly, recovering the loose ball, cut a line through the visitors’ defence before putting in a clever angled kick behind the cover and into the in-goal area.
May, surging past Damian Penaud, touched down to make it 5-0.
England captain Owen Farrell missed the tough conversion but the flyhalf soon added a penalty before France scrumhalf Morgan Parra kicked one of his own before a 40m Farrell penalty made it 11-3.
Farrell's cut-out pass then found May who, one-on-one with not much room to play with against Penaud, beat the Frenchman all too easily for another try in the left corner.
Farrell's conversion hit the post but England were 16-3 up.
And May clinched his hattrick in the 30th minute when Parra knocked on a high ball and a clever kick from fellow wing Chris Ashton, making his first Championship start in six years, saw him sliding in again.
This time Farrell kicked the conversion and England were almost out of sight at 23-3.
France did capitalise on a rare slip by England when fullback Yoann Huget burst through several tackles before sending Penaud in for a try at the right corner, with Parra missing the conversion.
On hlaftime a kick through from scrumhalf Ben Youngs found Ashton in a huge amount of space, and the ball came back to Slade, who cut inside for a converted try.
France's day went from bad to worse in the 50th minute when they were reduced to 14 men as Gael Fickou was yellow-carded for tackling Ashton without the ball near the tryline, with referee Nigel Owens awarding a penalty try that extended England's lead to 37-8.
Following a touchline flareup, Farrell chased up his own kick as England scored yet another try by putting the ball behind a powerful but sluggish France. – AFP