England's World Cup dreams fell apart under a French onslaught on a night when their shortcomings were brutally exposed at the quarter-final stage. First-half tries from Vincent Clerc and Maxime Medard opened a lead of 16 unanswered points as England shipped penalties and made basic errors across the park.
England struck back with a fine try from Ben Foden and closed to within seven points with three minutes left when Mark Cueto capitalised on a break from replacement Matt Banahan. But they ran out of time and inspiration as Les Bleus set up a deserved semi-final clash with Wales.
France, so poor in their pool matches, were a side transformed as they took revenge for their World Cup defeats of and The defeat will leave manager Martin Johnson under pressure after his gamble of pairing Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood at 10 and 12 failed to ignite the England back line, while his forwards were repeatedly second best at the set-piece and in the loose.
Johnson's contract expires in November, and four weeks as memorable for scandals off the pitch as any achievements on it will do little to appease the notoriously twitchy committee-men at the Rugby Football Union. France were supposedly a team in pieces, beaten by Tonga just a week ago and with coach Marc Lievremont publicly berating his players, but so clear-cut was their victory that much of the atmosphere had been sucked from the contest long before the end.
England had an early opportunity with a line-out deep in French territory after a clever grubber from Foden only for Lionel Nallet to burgle back possession, and they then tore into France again as Alexis Palisson was smashed backwards after taking a garryowen and Manu Tuilagi thundered into Morgan Parra. If he says 'no', you can't. It's unfortunate we have had to take this action but ultimately there was a breach of the laws of the game.
But it's happened, some action has been taken, and we have to move on. Eight years ago, England's triumphant World Cup campaign could have been derailed after they briefly fielded 16 men in the pool victory over Samoa.
England were hauled before a disciplinary hearing in Sydney and narrowly escaped a points deduction. This latest brush with authority comes after an eventful World Cup campaign for England, which has seen Johnson face down criticism over his players' conduct on a drunken night out in Queenstown. England also became the first team to have a player suspended, after Courtney Lawes was found guilty of striking the Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma with his knee.
Wilkinson refused to comment on the ball-switch issue on Thursday, but he believes England are stronger for all the challenges they have faced. England must beat Scotland on Saturday to be sure of qualifying for the World Cup quarter-finals. Players and Rugby Football Union officials have both accused some squad members of being more interested in "getting cash and caps than about getting better on the pitch" while Martin Johnson's managerial failings have also been heavily criticised.
The three reviews — conducted by the RFU's director of elite rugby, Rob Andrew, the players' union and the professional clubs — were never intended for public consumption but the contents paint a damning picture of a divided squad whose priorities, in some cases, did not appear to be winning the tournament. The player concerned said the response "made me sick. Money shouldn't even come into a player's mind. It has also been confirmed that the RFU was held to ransom by the players before the tournament began, with the squad threatening to boycott the eve-of-departure dinner.
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