May 24, 2007

Five-try England fry French

England booked their place in the quarter finals of the Cup with a 33-5 win over France to emphasise their resurgence since the low point of Adelaide last month.

This was a confident display from an England side that had power, pace and precision finishing against which the French had few answers.

England looked to have scored a try with only seconds of the game played when Ben Foden latched on to a pass to cross unopposed.  But an earlier knock-on had been spotted and the score was chalked off.

But England did not have to wait long for their opening points, a fine try and conversion  from Ben Gollings after the stand-off had shown delicate footwork through a clutch of defenders. Then Foden added score number two, the Sale Sharks player’s 20th try in international sevens, Gollings converting.

Just before half time England extended their lead with a try from Ken Barrett to  give them  a 19-0 interval advantage.  The gap then extended to seven points after Gollings converted a try from Worcester wing Uche Oduoza , who used his pace to outstrip the French defence.

France finally got into the game with an impressive solo effort from Anthony Poujol but the fightback was shortlived as Foden signed off a comprehensive England victory with his second try, Gollings adding the conversion.

England’s opponents in the tomorrow’s quarter finals will now depend on the outcome of the final pool match today against South Africa.

England : Rob Webber, Ben Foden, Andrew Vilk, Kevin Barrett, Ben Gollings, Uche Oduoza, Ollie Phillips  Subs Tom Biggs for Oduoza, Chris Cracknell for Webber, Tom Youngs for Barrett