France v England

England will be hoping to put pressure on Ireland at the top of the Six Nations standings as they take on France in Le Crunch at Twickenham.

To be able to have Owen [Farrell] to come on and finish the game' But England undo their hard work conceding a penalty for handling the ball on the floor. But play is called back by the referee as England have the advantage and kick to the corner with the resulting penalty. England recover the ball and clear their lines. France have certainly got off on the front foot, with England making several mistakes. According to Opta, their 24-point lead is the largest any side has had at half time over England in the Six Nations. The home side have not quite mounted a fluid attack yet. I thought it was a well selected team [England], I thought it was the best selected team he could have put out. But just the physicality and the athleticism of the French team was amazing. It looks as though the French openside Ollivon may have scored with the TMO checking now! Fickou's excellent vision see's Alex Dombrant mismatched against Penaud on the wing, and while Dombrant gets the tap on the France 14, he can't quite bring him down. I think I sugar-coat it, probably one of the worst performances we’ve had.

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.

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.

England fell to a record 53-10 defeat to France in Round Four of the 2023 Six Nations. Planet Rugby looks through the stats and facts behind the loss.

2007 – The last time England lost to France at Twickenham. That was all the way back in 1972. At Twickenham the biggest HT deficit had been 5-28 to NZ in 2006. 2005 – The year that England last lost a Six Nations match to France at Twickenham. 53 – The new record number of points scored against England at Twickenham. 9 – The number of times in succession that England had beaten France at Twickenham.

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