Rugby: France bask in Twickenham humiliation of England

LONDON – Fabien Galthie was left in tears, almost too emotional to speak after France’s 53-10 humiliation of England in a stunning Six Nations match on Saturday.

Captain Antoine Dupont said he had “trouble realising what we did when I look at the scoreboard”.

But coach Galthie, a former France scrum half and skipper, said he was fully aware of what had just happened.

“Yes I realise. I’ve been coming here since I was 20,” he said, with tears in his eyes.

“We played the way we wanted to play... We didn’t know exactly how but we had that drive. And doing it here, in this context...

“It didn’t happen by chance. We’ve been working together with these players. It shows we’re on the right path.”

Tries by fullback Thomas Ramos, lock Thibaud Flament and flanker Charles Ollivon gave the visitors a 27-3 half-time lead.

England hit back with a Freddie Steward try but Flament and Ollivon both crossed again, before winger Damian Penaud added two late scores as the shell-shocked hosts wilted in the driving rain.

Flanker Francois Cros, a key cog to a dominant French side, alongside back-row teammates Gregory Alldritt and Ollivon, hailed the victory in the cauldron of Twickenham, where France had not won in 16 years.

“It’s the only stadium in Europe where we haven’t won since Fabien Galthie took over,” Cros said of the coach who took charge of Les Bleus after the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

The seven-try victory was England’s heaviest-ever home defeat, and third-worst anywhere.

“It’s important for us to write our history and try to win everywhere and against everybody,” said Cros. “It’s another step tonight.”

French daily sports newspaper L’Equipe had mocked up Galthie as Indiana Jones on its front page on Saturday, with the headline “Galthie with Les Bleus at the Temple of Doom” in a nod to the Steven Spielberg film featuring Harrison Ford as Jones.

But Twickenham did not prove to be the trap for Galthie as it had been for almost two decades for his predecessors.

France hooker Julien Marchand insisted, however, that a record score on English soil had not been the goal.

“You always see the score and obviously we’re chuffed when it goes like that,” he said.

“We know the importance of points difference for the culmination of the Six Nations, we know that a match can change everything in a matter of minutes...

“We had a great match, we’re happy with the record score but it wasn’t the goal. That was putting out a good performance.”

Ramos, named Man of the Match for his 23-point display, including a scintillating opening try, said the result was a huge confidence booster.

“It’s possibly one of our best attacking games for a long, long time,” he said.

“It’s important because it shows that we can produce the goods at a high level.”

Meanwhile, England coach Steve Borthwick admitted his sixth-ranked team were a long way behind the world’s best sides.

“We got exposed today,” he said. “I thought we would get a measure of where we are at, there is a big gap between us and the top teams in the world.

“I think we understand where we are and what we have to do. We are hurting.”

He made the bold call to drop captain Owen Farrell in favour of Marcus Smith, but the young fly half had little ball to work with and was unable to get England’s backline moving.

Farrell was sent on as a replacement centre but it was far too late to change the course of the match.

“We have a lot of work to do and it shows where we are at,” said England captain Ellis Genge, after leading his country for the first time.

“We lost the contact area and chased tails and everyone will write us off and that’s brilliant – we just want to get better.

“France are brilliant and have shown why they are No. 2 in the world and we are way off where we want to be.” AFP, REUTERS