England Students 19 France Students 10
Ryan Owen's superbly-taken try and the flawless goalkicking of Alastair Simmie enabled England Students to complete a first-ever double over France.
Loughborough wing Owen blasted his way over in the first-half and his university team-mate Simmie added a conversion and four penalties in a superb display at Iffley Road.
Sebastien Logerot touched down for France but, although fly-half Christopher Ruiz added a conversion and drop-goal, he missed two costly penalties that might have punished England for failing to take all their chances.
The Students had claimed their first win on French soil in 14 years with their heroic 8-6 win in Cahors last month and had promised to add more attacking elan in the build-up to the return game to give manager Tony Lanaway a fitting send-off after 12 years in charge.
They were as good as their word in a richly entertaining performance in which they provided another solid forward effort and showed a willingness to attack from deep and keep the ball alive.
France opened the scoring against the run of play after 10 minutes when the space opened up for Montpellier wing Logerot to cruise over on the left with Ruiz adding a touchline conversion.
But they were on the back foot for long spells after that before England drew level when Greg Irvin (Durham) and Joe Clark (Cambridge) kept the ball alive brilliantly to put wing Owen in the clear from 40 metres out with his Loughborough teammate Alastair Simmie adding the extra points.
Ruiz nudged France in front with a drop-goal, but missed with another long-range effort and with a penalty before Simmie hit the target on the half-hour to level the scores at 10-10.
There was less fluency from both sides at the start of the second-half until one twisting break from full-back Jack Smales set up the field position for Simmie to kick England in front for the first time with his second successful penalty on the hour.
He added a third - the best of them all from wide on the right - five minutes later after some intelligent chasing from Hartpury wing Tom Jarvis.
And five minutes from time France pulled down a line-out drive and up stepped Simmie there was no way back with a calmly-taken fourth penalty from 40 metres out.
France's frustrations boiled over after that with lock Pierrick Esclauze sent-off by Irish referee Colin Stanley for fighting at the line-out that preceded the final whistle.
England Students: Jack Smales (Bath), Tom Jarvis (Hartpury College), David Tibbott (Cambridge, Duncan Steele, Bath 24), Thomas Gregory (Nottingham), Ryan Owen (Loughborough, Rory Damant, St Mary's 78), Alastair Simmie (Durham), Toby Henry (Loughborough, Chris Pilgrim, Loughborough 51); Kevin Davis (Loughborough, Daniel James, Loughborough 78), Joe Clark (Cambridge, Richard Lutton, Loughborough 58), Aaron Liffchak (Hertfordshire), Ian Kench (Loughborough), Jon Chance (Oxford, Robert Anderson, Imperial 65), Douglas Abbott (Oxford, 19 Tom George, Nottingham 61), Tom Malaney (Cambridge), Greg Irvin (Durham, captain).
France Students: Julien Cazeneve (UPPA), Severin Prats (SUP De CO Toulouse), Romain Lafourcade (Bordeaux 2, Benjoman Servien, US Toulon 39), Regis Lespinas (University Marseille), Sebastien Logerot (U1 Montpellier), Christopher Ruiz (U1 Montpellier), Damien Neveu (University Limoges, Thomas Servien, UJF 72); Fabien Barcella (UPS Toulouse), Joan Caudullo (U1 Staps Montpellier, captain, Sebastien Bruere, University Toulouse 65), Thomas Domingo (Clermont, Romain Frou, University Montpellier 31), Thibault Dubarry (University Limoges, Olivier Caisso, University Toulon 61), Pierrick Esclauze (U2 Montpellier), Frederick Medves (CRSU Toulouse), Vassili Bost (IND Montpellier, Bogdan Leonte, UPHF Grenoble 47), Domen Chouly (University Limoges).
Referee: Colin Stanley (IRFU).
ends
