February 23, 2008

France 13
England 24

RICHARD WIGGLESWORTH celebrated a dream first start for his country with the clinching try as England unearthed their World Cup spirit and re-kindled their Six Nations campaign.

The Sale Sharks scrum half dived over to make the game safe and his euphoric toss of the ball into the stunned Stade de France crowd showed how much the victory - a repeat of the Rugby World Cup semi-final triumph last October - meant to him and the team.

It was England's first RBS 6 Nations win over France at Stade de France since 2000 and 'Wiggy' said:  "To win away in France and to get my name on the scoresheet...I'm thrilled. I'm going to get a bit of stick for my celebration when I get back to Sale. I don't get many tries but I do like the old ball toss, it's my favourite celebration. It was a great occasion and stadium and I thoroughly enjoyed it."

Head Coach Brian Ashton added: "I thought Richard did really well. What a way to end the game by scoring the try that took us out of sight. He must be delighted with that and I'm really pleased with the way he performed in what is quite a hostile enviornment for a first international start.

"The players were under no illusions that we had to put in a performance today. We have played two half games (against Wales and Italy) and we needed to put in an 80-minute performance and apart from one or two lapses in certain areas I think they will be quite pleased with what they did today."

England got off to a dream start after just five minutes when Jamie Noon's thunderous tackle on Cedric Heymans dislodged the ball and Paul Sackey beat the covering Francois Trinh-Duc to the touchdown. Jonny Wilkinson kicked the conversion and then landed a penalty for a 10-0 lead.

The injury jinx which has afflicted England throughout the tournament struck again when James Haskell limped off with a left ankle injury after 20 minutes to be replaced by Tom Croft.

France paid the price for not having a top-notch goal kicker with Damien Traille missing two first-half penalties but the centre added the extras to a try from captain Lionel Nallet, who kept his team in touch when he picked up and drove over after 25 minutes.

Wilkinson kicked a second penalty for a 13-7 lead but 19-year-old Morgan Parra belied his debut status with an assured riposte after taking over the place-kicking from Traille.

Two penalty misses from Wilkinson boded ominously for England but he made no mistake in the 63rd minute when he overtook Hugo Porta as the world's leading drop-goal kicker with the 29th of his career.

He then kicked a long-range effort for a 19-10 advantage and a 14-point individual haul before France's third kicker of the evening, replacement Dimitri Yachvili, pulled them back to within six points.

But when France knocked on in front of their own posts with three minutes to go England not only pulled up the drawbridge but added a hammer blow when Wigglesworth picked up and dived over.