England wins ugly to begin title defense
Print Edition
ENGLAND came back twice to edge France 19-16 and set a new national record for consecutive victories in a shaky start to its Six Nations title defense on Saturday.
England’s 15th straight win dating to 2015, and 14th under coach Eddie Jones, was easily its poorest display in the streak. The English defense was narrow, their set-pieces were stressed, and they missed 24 tackles, almost twice as many as France. The English were sluggish and sloppy until replacements in the last 15 minutes made a difference.
“We can’t get much uglier than that,” Jones said. “For some reason we sat back in the first half, we weren’t our usual urgent selves. Maybe the preparation I gave the team wasn’t good enough.”
France was leading 16-12 after scoring the first try through replacement prop Rabah Slimani. But minutes later, Slimani was penalized for collapsing a scrum, and England set up an attacking lineout.
When the drive stalled, James Haskell, on for six minutes, charged upfield. Jack Nowell, on for two minutes, took the ball to the line. Then flyhalf Owen Farrell fed Ben Te’o, on for two minutes, in a gap and he burst past three defenders to score the match-winning try with 10 minutes to go.
England held on with more authority than it showed in the previous 70 minutes, and win No. 15 eclipsed the record streak of the 2002-03 side.
Also on Saturday, Scotland beat Ireland 27-22. What was eye-opening was how Scotland led 21-8 by halftime, with three tries of verve and genius.
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