France stop England

Marseille, Aug 31: France ended England's 14-match winning streak with a hard-fought victory in Marseille.
It was England's first loss since their 20-15 defeat by France in the Six Nations in Paris last year.
The boot of Frederic Michalak, and England's indiscipline, proved the difference between the teams - he kicked three penalties and a drop-goal to punish England's handling errors. Nicolas Brusque scored France's only try, while Mike Tindall went over for the visitors.
Although France fielded a full-strength side, England coach Clive Woodward opted to use the game to experiment with his line-up.

And that ensured the match, which was always likely to be more competitive than its friendly billing, was fierce as players played for World Cup places.
In the opening exchanges, scuffles broke out as each set of forwards tried to dominate.

When things settled down, England were the first to go over, when Tindall took advantage of a well-worked line-out and a clever feint from Paul Grayson.
Tindall punched through a gap in the French defence and powered over the line to put England ahead for the first time in the match.

They had trailed to a Michalak penalty before Grayson evened things up.
But French flair proved the undoing of England's rear guard as the hosts produced a brilliant flowing move, culminating in a Brusque score in the corner.

Until then, Brusque had been poor with the boot and was struggling to make an impact elsewhere too.
England had regained the lead and were leading by a point, thanks to a Grayson penalty, as half-time approached.
But the visitors conceded an injury-time penalty which gave Michalak the chance to give France the lead at the interval.
England went ahead once more through a Grayson penalty after 15 minutes of the second half, but it was to be a lead they could not hold.

And when Lewis Moody conceded another penalty, Michalak ended England's dream of beating New Zealand and South Africa's record of 17 consecutive wins.

Bureau Report