England v France

Sportsmail breaks down everything you need to know ahead of England's fourth Six Nations game against holders France as Borthwick's side chase their third ...

And what are the starting line-ups? England will play their fourth Six Nations game against France on Saturday afternoon, with the match getting underway at 4.45pm. [England](/sport/england_rugby_team/index.html) will be looking to pick up their third straight win in the [Six Nations](/sport/six_nations/index.html) when they face holders [France](/sport/france-rugby/index.html). - Steve Borthwick's England face France in their fourth game in the Six Nations When is it? England will be looking to pick up their third win in a row when they face holders France in a crucial Six Nations showdown, but how can you watch the game?

Minute-by-minute report: 'Le Crunch' returns with this year's edition at Twickenham. Join Lee Calvert.

The first penalty of the match for England is despatched to touch on the France 22 by Smith. Marchand goes over the top of the lineout to Fickou, but the contact skills are poor from France and the ball is back in England hands around halfway. Smith has a short dart into the France 22 and the fast recycle finds Malins who nudges the ball with his toe into touch near the goal-line. England are disorganised in backfield and Dupont, eyes like a stocky hawk, spots this and blooters a left footed 50:22 from the base of the ruck to give his side a lineout deep in England territory. From the scrum, England finally get some quicker ball from the breakdown, but the French defence covers the phases well. A horrible restart drill from England leaves Dombrandt isolated and a huge French counter-ruck wins a penalty. The England forwards go hard at the France pack in the scrum. The scrum completes with England trying a similar move to that which led to a try vs Wales via the inside pop to Malins. France hammer the England tacklers, but again the home side are up to it, but the blue waves continue to come as the visitors’ dominance is reasserted. The ball comes loose as Smith releases it and England do nothing with it so Ollivon reaches over to press down on the ball. Itoje nabs the ball in the breakdown and puts England on the attack before the ball is lost in the French 22. As the clock ticks into the red, France have a pen on their 5m line.

England take on France in what could be a pivotal game in this year's Six Nations Championship. England currently sit third in the table level on points ...

England boss Steve Borthwick has made a huge call by dropping Owen Farrell in favour of Marcus Smith. The winner will still be able to win albeit in unlikely circumstances. England currently sit third in the table level on points with France and still harbour distant hopes of lifting the title. The match kicks-off at 4:45 and is available to watch live on Virgin Media 1. Ramos sprints clear and is on the receiving end of a Dumortier pass. They also could still win the tournament but must rely on other results going their way.

England player ratings live from Twickenham: This was savage, a brutal record beating as England were blown away by France.

[Henry Arundell](https://www.rugbypass.com/players/henry-arundell/) – 3.5 Quickly upped the tempo and gave the assist for Steward. An awful day ended with Penaud leaving him for dead for the first of his late tries. Was the other player involved in not preventing the offload on halfway that got France up and running with their opening score. Similar to Sinckler, he badly fell foul of referee O’Keeffe in the opening 15 minutes and was always on the back foot from there. Looked to be improving during February, but this display was a dire collapse as he was outfought by the opposition grunt. First-time captain endured a horrible experience in which he contributed to his team’s slow start with a deflating 12th-minute knock-on. That gave the French a soft mark to clear from their 22. His 60-minute appearance went from bad to worse after that. No one could quibble that he didn’t deserve his place, but he was blown away here and hooked on 46 for Farrell. That tick has now been well and truly inked, the swashbuckling Les Bleus’ winning at English Rugby HQ for the first time since 2005. All that palaver was marked absent in a filthy rout where their back row essentially never got off the bus.

The pre-match positivity at Twickenham quickly melted away as France ran riot.

Made a barnstorming break in the first half and punched holes in England’s defensive line all day long. Put the icing on the cake with two well-deserved tries. Orchestrator of a dream first half. Farrell provided a level of calmness when he entered the fray, Arundell didn’t have much of an attacking platform to work with. Conceded three penalties in the first forty. Looked a shadow of the disruptive force he has been in previous games. Threw himself around the park but had a quiet game compared to his recent outings. A big day out as captain and was probably England’s most prominent forward on the pitch. His job was to quicken the tempo but instead presided over a slow ruck and shanked a horrible box kick. Solid enough in front of the uprights but gifted too many kicks to the waiting arms of Ramos and struggled to manipulate space. Turned Penaud inside out metres from his own line under pressure but fumbled a Dupont kick when he had all the time in the world. His misfortune at grounding Smith’s kick in greasy conditions was a snapshot of how England’s afternoon panned out.

France tore England apart in one of the great Guinness Six Nations performances to keep their 2023 Championship hopes alive ahead of Super Saturday.

Following a 53-10 victory for France over England in their Six Nations fixture, here's our five takeaways from the game at Twickenham on Saturday.

Rugby is now a game of both physicality and brutality and without that sheer power, Test matches are particularly hard to win. It was England’s third worse defeat in their rugby history, their worst ever defeat at home and their biggest defeat to France. His task now is to learn the harsh lessons dished out by France, to try and find the power players to change the shape of the English backline, and above all, get some structure back into their performances. His personal stats might not show his influence on the match but every time England tried to fire it was he who barrelled them back, making four bone shattering dominant hits and acting as a fourth back-row forward around the breakdown. From the moment the outstanding Charles Ollivon created the first try with an exquisite offload to the last play of their attack that saw Damian Penaud scoot over for his brace, they were compelling and brilliant. It was a masterclass in controlled running rugby, showing every facet of France’s all round game and completely eviscerating Steve Borthwick’s rebuild project of his England side.

England were obliterated by France in a seven-try mauling at Twickenham. A record defeat at their home stadium saw Steve Borthwick's side outfought, ...

It's the first time in Farrell's entire career that he's been benched for a Six Nations game, and what effect will his absence have on an England attack which has looked disjointed at times in 2023? Successive offloads out of contact from Ollivon and Flament release Dumortier into open space, and he finds Ramos to his outside to put the French full-back over in the corner! Danty leads the visitors in this regard, but is pinged for not rolling away in the ruck and concedes a penalty. George is trapped in the ruck and Sinckler's presence means he can't get out, and the resultant penalty is knocked over from right in front by Ramos, taking his personal points tally to 15 in this game. Ollivon peels off from openside to collect the number eight's inside pass, and crashes his way through Smith and Steward to score in the corner! England generate quick ball inside the French 22 and finds Steward hitting one hell of a line, and the gigantic full-back shoves Ramos away to slide over the whitewash! England don't ground the ball on their own line and a pile-on of a ruck ensues. The referee and TMO decide that England kept the ball in the field of play, and that Smith had indeed released it. It's a rout in every sense of the word, although Ramos does finally miss a conversion to keep the score at 53 to 10. France's domination of the game saw them play out 80 minutes with barely a fault, and ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup — on home soil, of course — Les Bleus' odds to win the tournament could well sky-rocket. France's performances in their first three Six Nations games had been a far cry from their complete dominance of the 2022 tournament, with Italy and Scotland considered unlucky not to beat them, and Ireland defeating them convincingly. Damian Penaud collected a cross-field kick to skip clear of the chasing defenders, and he was over again three minutes later to round off the scoring.

England were obliterated by France in a seven-try mauling at Twickenham. A record defeat at their home stadium saw Steve Borthwick's side outfought, ...

It's the first time in Farrell's entire career that he's been benched for a Six Nations game, and what effect will his absence have on an England attack which has looked disjointed at times in 2023? Successive offloads out of contact from Ollivon and Flament release Dumortier into open space, and he finds Ramos to his outside to put the French full-back over in the corner! Danty leads the visitors in this regard, but is pinged for not rolling away in the ruck and concedes a penalty. George is trapped in the ruck and Sinckler's presence means he can't get out, and the resultant penalty is knocked over from right in front by Ramos, taking his personal points tally to 15 in this game. Ollivon peels off from openside to collect the number eight's inside pass, and crashes his way through Smith and Steward to score in the corner! England generate quick ball inside the French 22 and finds Steward hitting one hell of a line, and the gigantic full-back shoves Ramos away to slide over the whitewash! England don't ground the ball on their own line and a pile-on of a ruck ensues. The referee and TMO decide that England kept the ball in the field of play, and that Smith had indeed released it. It's a rout in every sense of the word, although Ramos does finally miss a conversion to keep the score at 53 to 10. France's domination of the game saw them play out 80 minutes with barely a fault, and ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup — on home soil, of course — Les Bleus' odds to win the tournament could well sky-rocket. France's performances in their first three Six Nations games had been a far cry from their complete dominance of the 2022 tournament, with Italy and Scotland considered unlucky not to beat them, and Ireland defeating them convincingly. Damian Penaud collected a cross-field kick to skip clear of the chasing defenders, and he was over again three minutes later to round off the scoring.

England 10-53 France: England were embarrassed as Les Bleus inflicted a record home defeat on their hopeless hosts.

Even the most nit-picky of critics who say England should have kicked the points when 10-0 down early on, rather than going to the corner and spurning the chance, have to admit it was irrelevant in the final reckoning. It wouldn’t have mattered whether Smith, Farrell or a prime Jonny Wilkinson was in the No 10 jersey, no one could have marshalled this shambolic version of England to a winning display. Full back Freddie Steward was the only Englishman to emerge with any credit from the opening stanza, as a couple of booming kicks helped clear early pressure, and the try he scored in the second half after a powerful carry was no more than his performance deserved. The Harlequins playmaker showed the flashes of athleticism we’ve come to expect, with a couple of half-breaks and shimmies past French defenders offering tantalising glimpses of what his explosive skillset could provide in anything resembling a functioning attack. Certainly, the positives of the previous two games were washed away in a horror first half. Any credit Borthwick had built up as an ex-England captain, with an impressive coaching CV early in his career and as the ideal, straightforward man to follow the drama of the unpopular Eddie Jones era has likely been extinguished.

England endured their biggest ever home defeat as France scored seven tries in a 53-10 thrashing.

Sir Clive Woodward and Jonny Wilkinson were left absolutely stunned after England were torn apart by a ruthless France in their heaviest ever defeat at ...

"It's a massive humility check," he added. That 1998 game [when England lost 76-0 to Australia], for me, it was a real cleansing opportunity to just realise the story of who I thought I was could no longer carry on, it was almost forced to change and in that change I found brand new possibility. "It's a sobering moment," he added. "I think Steve has still got a lot of learning to do, but he's a young coach and he just started his international career. But to think that we're going to go and play Ireland next week, it's been a sobering thought. "But it's not that big a gap.

Steve Borthwick says he is "incredibly disappointed" with England's humiliating record defeat to France at Twickenham in the Six Nations, adding they are ...

"Now, what's clear is while we had plans in place today to mitigate against that power, we didn't execute enough and made errors. I said before the game it was a formidable challenge, and it turned out to be. We've got to learn from it and be better. And that hurts us, and I'm sure it hurts the supporters as well. My job is to make sure we learn and improve faster than any other team. Today just shows, in stark reality, what that's about.