Care and Cole set England on their merry way to Grand Slam
FIRST-HALF tries from Danny Care and Dan Cole helped set England on their way to landing a first Grand Slam since 2003.
Eddie Jones had braced his players for French dirty tricks during their warm-up, but the rogue cockerels and marching band predicted by the Australian to interfere with final preparations failed to make an appearance.
Instead, the first act of foul play came from England at the kick off when Anthony Watson took Gael Fickou out in the air and once Maro Itoje was penalised for an illegal poach at the breakdown, Maxime Machenaud kicked France ahead.
Farrell levelled the score via a kind bounce off the right upright, but at least one of Jones’ predictions was proving accurate as the French continued their blazing start – assisted by some weak defending.
Mike Brown handed off a tackle by Fickou but was unable to deliver the scoring pass to Danny Care before play swung back into England’s half with their right wing probed repeatedly.
It was France’s turn to go missing in defence in the 12th minute and the ultraalert Care pounced, exploiting a big gap at the breakdown to race over from 40 yards out.
And the home side crumbled far too easily for a second time eight minutes later when several phases after Watson had caught a crossfield kick Dan Cole shrugged off Scott Spedding to barrel over.
Their dire defending for the two tries aside, France were far from a lost cause as every time they attacked they made ground and with better handling they would have crossed the try-line themselves.
France had the final say of the half when Machenaud was on target for a fourth time and while a try was proving elusive, they at least marked every visit to England’s half on the scoreboard.
The second-half proved to be just as attritional as the first. Wing Virimi Vakatawa brushed aside a succession of tackles with worrying ease until Jack Nowell finally brought him down and then only Chris Robshaw’s late intervention prevented Bernard Le Roux from crossing in the corner.
Machenaud and Farrell exchanged penalties and the teams took it in turn to attack as an absorbing match continued to unfold, although the regular interruptions for penalties took their toll on the spectacle.
England finally produced a moment of magic approaching the hour mark, as Billy Vunipola carried with intent, Ben Youngs sped free and chipped for Anthony Watson to gather and score in the right corner.
Owen Farrell slotted further two penalties in the final 10 minutes to provide some breathing space, putting the game out of reach for the French as England held out to secure the Grand Slam.