In the end, France made no mistake. It was their Grand Slam for the taking - as England’s head coach Martin Johnson reminded them before the weekend - and with the exception of one hiccup in the opening 10 minutes of Saturday evening’s match, Marc Lievremont’s men duly grasped their opportunity.
With Scotland pulling off a shock victory over Ireland at Croke Park earlier in the day, France had already been crowned Six Nations champions - there was a danger that Les Blues would lose sight of the job in hand. Meanwhile, their opponents were keen to end the championships on a high note: Johnson, more than anyone, was desperate to silence his growing contingent of critics.
A drop goal in the opening minutes from François Trinh-Duc was in tandem with the script: France were expected to hammer their cross-channel rivals before lifting the Six Nations trophy in euphoric fashion with the expectant home crowd jubilantly celebrating the team’s achievements.
Johnson, though, was determined to spoil the party; and had made a number of key changes before their closing Six Nations match – one of which included full-back Ben Foden.
And how the England head coach must have wished he’d made similar changes for the Calcutta Cup clash seven days earlier. Foden, who replaced the out-of-sorts Delon Armitage in the starting XV, crossed the line after being teed up by teammate Chris Ashton with just six minutes on the clock.
Cue gasps of shock from the 80,000 crammed into the electric Stade de France – this wasn’t in the script at all. Had England played with this much energy and passion in their other four matches, they would have still been firmly in the hunt for the trophy by the time they arrived in Paris.
Johnson’s French counterpart, Lievremont, is renowned for his tinkering methods: always making changes to his starting line-up, never content with his starting XV. But he bucked the trend on Saturday by making just one: the powerhouse Mathieu Bastareaud, who made his return to centre.
It was in stark contrast not only to his previous managerial exploits, but Johnson’s too. England fly-half Toby Flood – another of Johnson’s changes - duly converted off the back of Foden’s try to put the visitors 7-3 ahead on the night.
Winning in Paris against such a brilliant France team would have undoubtedly been the finest achievement of Johnson’s tenure as England head coach – and possibly of his career. However, he looked on from the stands tentatively, with the look of a man who had experienced moments like this all too often not to get carried away.
Johnson’s time as England head coach has been blighted by disappointment, frustration and discontent – but here was an opportunity to rectify everything in one 80-minute match. Unfortunately for the captain of England’s World Cup win in 2003, France had a certain outstanding 21-year-old scrum-half in their ranks. Morgan Parra came into this match as the tournament’s top scorer with points against every team France had faced over the past month - England weren’t about to escape unharmed.
Parra’s three penalties in the first-half put the hosts 12-7 ahead at the interval as normal service was quickly resumed. Any thoughts of a shock victory were all but extinguished by this point. Johnson had that familiar frustrated feeling at the break and questioned New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence over his contentious decision making before heading back to the England dressing room.
The French crowd could have been forgiven for thinking that was that – Grand Slam in the bag. But Johnson again made more changes and utilised his replacements to good effect. David Wilson and Steve Thompson came on for Dan Cole and Dylan Hartley respectively, and the visitors again looked threatening in the second-half.
Jonny Wilkinson then made an appearance and managed to reduce the deficit to just two points with a penalty, but France played it safe and managed to see out the remainder of the match with their slender lead intact.
Over the course of the championships, this was a fair result. If this talented France team had let the Grand Slam slip from their hands it would have been a travesty. But England had shown huge signs of improvement in this match, and Johnson would have learnt a valuable lesson ahead of next year’s World Cup that difficult selection decisions have to be made in order to reap the benefits.
The night deservedly belonged to France, though. It was their first Grand Slam since 2004 and their ninth in total. Mission accomplished for Les Blues, then, who now set their sights of winning their first ever World Cup in 18 months time.
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