France were ‘spanked’, admits Iturria

Arthur Iturria, the France forward, admitted his side were “spanked” at Twickenham and believes that Scotland will be confident of inflicting another defeat on them in Paris on Saturday week.

France conceded six tries on the way to their largest margin of defeat in an edition of Le Crunch for 108 years.

“We got spanked,” said Iturria. “They were stronger and we have to work hard to get to that level. Scotland will come to beat us, like everybody does now.”

France have lost eight of their past nine Tests in a gruesome run of results. They boast a sole victory, over Argentina in November, since beating England 22-16 last March.

Captain Guilhem Guirado, whose handling error led to Jonny May’s try after just 74 seconds, echoed Iturria’s sentiments. He described the afternoon as “painful” and “very, very disappointing”.

Coach Jacques Brunel bemoaned an inability to counter the hosts’ precise kicking game, which played a part in all six of their tries.

By the time he replaced starting full-back Yoann Huget with Thomas Ramos at half-time, France were trailing 30-8 thanks to Jonny May’s hat-trick and another score by Henry Slade.

“England put us under pressure throughout the game and we just could not deal with it,” added Brunel. “The same thing happened throughout the game. They had an excellent kicking game and took advantage of the space.

“We have to accept that England were stronger than us today. We could not respond to a recurring situation in the first half.”

Scotland have beaten France in the past two meetings at Murrayfield. However, their last win at the Stade de France came in 1999.