A last-gasp Thomas Ramos penalty goal helped France retain their Six Nations crown as they edged England 48-46 in a thrilling game in Paris on Saturday.
It was a stunning climax to this year’s Championship as 13 tries were scored, but it all came down to Ramos at the death as he landed three points to secure the title.
Ireland would have been willing England to hang on after Tommy Freeman crossed in the 76th minute but Les Bleus recovered and got one final opportunity to win.
Ramos took it and was the hero but Louis Bielle-Biarrey was a star too, crossing four times, while Theo Attissogbe was France’s other scorer to go with a penalty try.
For England, Tom Roebuck, Cadan Murley, Ollie Chessum (2), Alex Coles, Marcus Smith and the aforementioned Freeman scored tries in a much-improved effort.
Few had given England hope of staying within touching distance of France, let alone rocking them in the manner they did in a first 40 when they grabbed four tries.
They won the majority of collisions and twisted the knife Scotland had planted last week as France were low on confidence and defensively were out of sorts again.
However, it was Les Bleus who still opened the scoring on eight minutes when a Ramos grubber in behind England’s defence popped up for Bielle-Biarrey to finish.
England hit back in ideal fashion as slick passing from Fin Smith to Elliot Daly and out to Roebuck saw the wing go over for an unconverted score that made it 7-5.
It was a thrill-a-minute at the Stade de France as Bielle-Biarrey was amongst the tries again on 13 minutes, this time Matthieu Jalibert’s kick finding the wing to score.
With the Ramos extras, France were 14-5 up but that was again cut by England when another grubber caused havoc in behind, Ben Spencer this time finding Murley.
Unlike Ramos, Fin Smith was struggling off the tee which meant it was a four-point game and that became seven when England were caught offside and Ramos struck.
But then England turned up the heat with back-to-back mauls hurting France and resulting in Chessum crashing over from close range. Fin Smith converted to level.
England weren’t done and struck again six minutes before the interval when Chessum turned provider for Coles and with Smith’s extras and a penalty, they led 27-17.
Crucially, though, France took something into the break as a 40th minute penalty try got them within three and it also saw Ellis Genge sin-binned for a maul offence.
With Fabien Galthie’s voice ringing in their ears, France upped their game after the resumption with Bielle-Biarrey’s first international hat-trick and wing partner Attisogbe also crossing inside eight minutes to push them into a 38-27 lead. It was the perfect nerve-settling double score for both French players and fans watching the action.
But England were not about to go down quietly as Chessum responded with an intercept crossing from distance on 51 minutes that cut the arrears down to six points.
Steve Borthwick then looked to his bench and it paid off when Marcus Smith battled his way over the line and then converted his try to put England in front at 39-38.
France were rattled and the Six Nations trophy seemed to be slipping from their grasp as England had the bit between their teeth and were dominating in many facets.
However, as quick as a flash, the game turned when Antoine Dupont spotted no one at home in the back-field for England and Bielle-Biarrey did the rest to get his fourth.
There was more drama to come though when Freeman responded under the posts after taking a superb Jack van Poortvliet pass as England thought they had snatched it.
But errors in their own half, first from Henry Pollock and later a high tackle from Chessum and a slap-down from Maro Itoje handed Ramos his golden chance, which he took with consummate ease, sparking mass celebrations and putting the seal on the French retaining their Six Nations crown. England, though, had ample positives to take.
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