The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-01)

16 May 1, 2022The Sunday Times 2GS

Rugby Union

As it is, England march on. Marlie

Packer had another excellent game,

Alex Matthews celebrated her 50th

cap with a fine performance and

Scarratt, hardly used in an attacking

sense, kicked all her goals. Most

probably, to have been under such

pressure for the first time in many

games will help them. Occasionally

they coped, occasionally they did not.

France scored the try they

deserved at the end through

Annaelle Deshayes and hard-headed

thinking could help them to improve

out of sight. But for now the Six

Nations winners are England, grand

slammers, and English rugby fans all

over the country will no doubt have

loved it.

As a final note on the Six Nations,

are all the teams best served having

everyone in one division? But now,

that is enough controversy.

France: Tries Menager (4min), Deshaye (67). Con

Drouin. England: Tries Bern 2 (12, 27), Ward (17).

Cons Scarratt 3. Pen Scarratt.

France C Jacquet; C Boujard (E Boulard 59), M

Filopon, G Vernier (J Tremouliere 67), M Ménager; C

Drouin, L Sansus (A Chambon 78); A Deshaye, A

Sochat (L Touye 64), C Joyeux (Y Brosseau 64), M

Fall, A Forlani, C Ferer, G Hermet (c), R Ménager (E

Gros 67).

England H Rowland; L Thompson, E Scarratt (c), H

Aitchison, J Breach; Z Harrison (sin-bin 42, E

Kildunne 72), L Infante (N Hunt 59); V Cornborough,

L Davies (H Botterman 57), S Bern (M Muir 64), Z

Aldcroft, A Ward, A Matthews (S Beckett 78), M

Packer, P Cleall (R Galligan 52).

Referee H Davidson (Scot).

There were other factors counting

against France. It is painful to report

it but the Scottish referee, Hollie

Davidson, was well below standard.

It seems preposterous that major

women’s games are refereed only by

women. What happened to merit?

The referee tolerated so many

English infringements near to the

French line that it was staggering that

only one player, Zoe Harrison, was

sent to the sin-bin. Davidson also

missed a stone-cold penalty try to

France in the first half, and she took a

high degree of stick from the stands.

If you add up all the odd incidents

and injustices, and took away an

absolutely sensational tackle by

Emily Scarratt that stopped a try after

an equally sensational run by Emilie

A grand slam... but not in style

E

ngland have a grand slam,

the highest accolade in

European rugby, and

something the men’s team

have been woefully short of.

They come up with all that

stuff about only the World

Cup being important, all that

drivel. The Red Roses celebrated

mightily at the end, even bringing out

one of those pop-up platforms on

which they could celebrate.

The teams in Bayonne’s excellent

and spiky stadium were marvellous,

the home crowd were generous with

their applause, and all but the referee

were clapped from the field. The

teams deserve the accolades, and

their World Cup run-in can now start

from a position of strength.

The grand slam is everything, and

you can win it in whatever style you

choose. England chose to stick the

ball up their jumpers and try to

hammer on with driving mauls. They

scored three tries, all in the first half

and all from driving mauls, with

Sarah Bern — as prolific as any wing

when it comes to tries — scoring two

and Lark Davies the other.

England attempted very little

else. It was as if they called time

temporarily on the attacking game

that had disposed of their other

opponents in the Six Nations,

showing they could do it another way.

As entertainment for a warm day it

hardly stirred the blood. The driving

maul throughout the sport should be

called the driving mess. There is no

shape to mauls, no dynamism, and

everything is in favour of the team

doing the driving, because referees,

for some bizarre reason, penalise

only the defending teams.

The other truth is that France had

a great deal more about them, in

terms of an overall game, than the

winners. France had dynamic players

around the fringes, where Laure

Sansus was brilliant at scrum half;

they had a great kicker on the left

wing, in Marine Ménager, and her

steepling kicks often exposed

weaknesses in the England defence.

And when Maëlan Filopon and

Madoussou Fall began to run at

England in the second half, we

realised that had France believed

from the start, they could have

become very dangerous indeed.

Fall was a revelation — she started

at lock but played at fly half through

the second half, where her

athleticism was remarkable.

Stephen Jones

Bern goes over

to score one

of her two tries

as England

bested a valiant

France side

WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS 2022

Team P W D L PD B Pts

England 5 5 0 0 260 7 27

France 5 4 0 1 104 4 20

Wales 5 2 0 3 -70 3 11

Ireland 5 2 0 3 -90 1 9

Italy 5 2 0 3 -119 0 8

Scotland 5 0 0 5 -85 3 3

Boulard, then you have an incredibly

close game. Indeed, the more you

watched France, the more you

concluded that if they gave this squad

to Shaun Edwards — defence coach

for the men’s side — for a few months

before the World Cup then they could

be serious contenders.

France had more

about them and had

they believed from

the start, they could

have been very

dangerous indeed

NICOLAS MOLLO/AP

FRANCE 12

ENGLAND 24