France 25
England 20
VETERAN FLY-HALF Frederic Michalak gave his hopes of a World Cup starting spot a major lift with a record-breaking performance as France downed England 25-20 in Saturday’s warm-up match.
Michalak kicked 17 points as he became France’s all-time leading scorer, boosting his hopes of a third World Cup appearance when coach Philippe Saint-Andre names his final squad on Sunday.
France were worthy winners although they had to endure a nervy last 10 minutes when England, trailing 25-6 at the time, scored two quickfire tries.
England had won the first of these warm-ups last weekend at Twickenham with a narrow 19-14 triumph.
France made 12 changes from that match while England went for 14 changes in their starting XV, making them almost at full-strength.
But Stuart Lancaster’s side were under the cosh from the start on Saturday.
France’s South African born full-back Scott Spedding kicked a monster penalty from the halfway line for a 3-0 lead after Luther Burrell had been penalised for failing to roll away.
Michalak then took over the kicking duties with two successful penalties — the second awarded when Dan Cole was caught offside — earning him the honour of becoming France’s all-time leading points scorer.
The 32-year-old passed the previous best of Christophe Lamaison’s 380 points set between 1996 and 2001.
Michalak, playing in his 72nd Test, has played in three Six Nations Grand Slam winning sides in 2002, 2004 and 2010, and featured in the 2003 and 2007 World Cups.
He was on target again for 12-0 before George Ford got England’s first points on the board.
The two fly-halves popped over another penalty apiece as France went into the break 15-6 ahead.
France deservedly grabbed the game’s first try early in the second half with Michalak playing a crucial role.
He drew one defender and delayed his pass long enough for winger Yoann Huget to dart and dance through for the score, his seventh international try.
Michalak kicked the extras for 22-6.
As the second-half wore on, the playing surface deteriorated with large chunks of the Stade de France pitch being ploughed up.
Michalak added another penalty after England were punished at the breakdown for 25-6 before he was replaced, leaving the field to a standing ovation.
His impressive half-back partner Sebastien Tillous-Borde also came off and England took advantage of the disruption to score their first try 10 minutes from time when replacement Danny Cipriani check-stepped and burst through over the line.
Ford added the conversion for 25-13.
France then took their foot off the gas as the clock ticked down and centre Jonathan Joseph made them pay with a try in the corner which Ford converted for 25-20.
I’m not a huge fan of the tap penalty, would lineout and maul not yield greater returns?
@brian o’leary: no guarantee you’ll win the lineout, that the other team won’t sack the maul etc. Tap penalty is the safest option to guarantee possession
@Niall Boyle: correct, but I wonder if there’s any stats available comparing the success rate of the two options?
@brian o’leary: scrum for me all day in that situation. Huge scrummaging machine pushes opposition pack backwards, secures another penalty, play of 8 around the house or 9 to the backline through one or two power phases..a thing of beauty…
@Stuart: ireland got a try from a 5 metre scrum, and two from lineout mauls v italy. We’re not converting from rucks inside 5m as much as we used to, getting held up a lot?
@brian o’leary: I’m still very in the fence about the held up law. It may because it feels like Ireland and Leinster get done by it a lot, which is maybe just my own perception, but it feels way too heavily weighted towards the defence. The attack could put together 5 or 6 great pieces of play to get themselves there and then one guy just needs to do one action to get his body under it and it undoes all of the hard attacking work and sticks you 30/40m back. That feels bad every time.
@Stuart: ireland have a poor record with ref’s and scrum penalties. If the opposition tighthead took a chainsaw to our frontrow the ref would give a penalty against porter for bleeding
Easterby’s best shot at being a 6n’s head coach permanently is with Wales. I think the IRFU will have noticed that the team has got progressively worse over the course of the championship under his watch. Is it all down to Easterby being there instead of Faz, possibly not but as an audition it definitely didn’t go well.
@Michael Corkery: maybe they’ll notice that being without their head coach for a period might not be the best idea, and will say no the next time?
@brian o’leary: Agreed. I think IRFU were wrong to sanction AF going off on Lions jolly at this time when Ireland were going for the 3 championships in a row and building towards WC….he is head coach and this is where he should be…end of. Coaching team need to look at their selection management over the entire 6n campaign.
@Dolores Scully: If the IRFU refused to sanction Farrell coaching the Lions, im pretty sure it wouldnt go down too well with Farrell.
@Jonny Miller: when will they get another chance to do 3 in a row?
Farrell should stay on his holidays if he is not committed.
@Jonny Miller:our coach could be told pre contract that its not an option?
I’m not sure why lions coach need to miss the six nations, he going to be familiar with all the players anyway, and stats can do the rest?
@brian o’leary: at the same time, in terms of succession planning, they got a look at the next man in potentially mid RWC cycle. They should have brought someone like Felix Jones in to concentrate on defense and basically have Easterby do the exact same role as Farrell but he kept his defensive role (which as a result of his attention being elsewhere fell well below the usual standard). For example if Easterby had left, wasn’t replaced and Farrell had to cover defense in his absence. Would we have seen similar regression?
@Dolores Scully: I don’t understand why AF didn’t coach the Irish side during the 6nts ..sat in the stands ? The lions squad are not even together yet…surely the lions gig is at mostly a part time gig at the moment with the administrational/planning stuff?
@Dolores Scully: Building towards a world cup. Same story every year
@Dolores Scully: rubbish there’s November series 25 &26, six nations 26 & 27 and a summer tour in 26 for Andy Farrell to be assessing options before the world cup.
@Oran Burns: maybe our best ever coach and you don’t think he’s committed?
@mark sheehan: well if you want to look at it like that the WC is a 4-year cycle and surely not getting past the quarter final should mean that building/ planning should start straight away. Also, as previously stated here, the 6n is worth a hell of a lot financially to the IRFU…needed to build the squad. And no, as head coach, the team should be front and centre…or is it another case of Sexton’s ” we lost but we won” rubbish.