England vs France - Sat 1pm

[Puja]

England: Kildunne; Dow, Rowland, Heard, MacDonald; Aitchison, L Packer; Botterman, Davies, Bern; Aldcroft, Beckett; Kabeya, M Packer (capt), Matthews.

Replacements: Powell, Carson, Muir, Cleall, Talling, Hunt, Reed, Breach.

France: Boulard; Banet, M Menager, Vernier, Llorens; Tremouliere, Bourdon; Brosseau, Sochat, Bernadou, Feleu, Forlani (capt), Berthoumieu, Hermet, Escudero.

Replacements: Riffonneau, Mwayembe, Khalfaoui, R Menager, Gros, Chambon, Arbez, Filopon.



It's the one game of the Women's 6N that I look forward to - I find it very hard to enjoy watching us rack up score after score against sides that provide little to no challenge, so it's nice to have a game where the result is actually in doubt.

Very good to have Packer fit to play, although you wonder just how fit she actually is.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Should be a proper test match in front of a large attendance.

Great promo effort by the RFU.

[fivepointer]

Not quite the test i thought we might see. England rampant after France on top for first quarter.

[16th man]

French second half starting with another big burst, making us look a bit flat footed in defence.

[Puja]

England looking very comfortable. They've stepped up another level this game, as they needed to.

Puja

[16th man]

That's a hell of a tackle.

[16th man]

Fair question about if France could have sustained this pace of play for a whole game, but we're certainly struggling with it now they've turned it on.

[Puja]

33-0 in the first half. 5-33 in the second. Hell of a team talk!

Puja

[Puja]

Fair question about if France could have sustained this pace of play for a whole game, but we're certainly struggling with it now they've turned it on.

We did give away a couple of soft tries though. The Vermulier try was the fringe defender just absolutely forgetting everything she ever knew about defensive alignment.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Quite a comeback from the French. Had us rattled for a time.

[Which Tyler]

33-0 in the first half. 5-33 in the second. Hell of a team talk!

Puja

I actually think it was a game mostly about France. England were very good, and pretty consistent through most of the match.

First 15 minutes both sides seemed very nervy, and France were winning the kicking battle, and then being... less than clinical ball when moving forwards ball-in-hand.
Then things settled down, France tried to play like England (in attack, at least; playing more like... Bath in defence), and England were just significantly better at it. Not helped by Trémoulière looking utterly disinterested in playing like England.

Not sure if it was the (correct) yellow card, or the half-time talk, but 2nd half, France decided to play like France, and Trémoulière played like she had a point to prove.
As far as I could tell, England were still playing much the same way, they just weren't being allowed the time and space to do anything in particular.

England winning by <7 seemed the right result, but they certainly shouldn't be sitting on their laurels going forwards from here.

It was interesting to hear on commentary (and how often do those words ever get used) that the French coaches have said that they feel the need to play a different game-plan against England. Their big take away from Saturday is to NOT do that, and to trust their systems, make England worry about them instead.
Playing someone who properly challenges you is going to be a shock to any team who only has 2 real peers; you shouldn't go around playing a different game-plan for those peers than you do the rest of the time.
The other big takeaway for the French should be to find a bit more power in the pack - they did bloody well whilst giving away 100kg up front, but until that's addressed, England (and NZ) can look forward to one-sided battles up front against France.

England need to keep doing what they're doing, but adding some complexity (and cynicism), and accept that a lot of opponents will be catching them ahead of the next RWC.
France need to trust in themselves, but find a way to close that power gap.

[fivepointer]

John Mitchell looks set to be named the new head coach. Not a name i had considered, and possibly not the kind of bloke to continue the work that Middleton & Co have put in.