France stuns England to book place in semi-final of 2011 Rugby World Cup tournament
France have recovered from their humiliating defeat suffered at the hands of Tonga during their last Pool A encounter of 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC), as they stunned England to secure their semi-final outing in the tournament against Wales. France defeated
the Northern Hemisphere rugby powerhouse England by 19 – 12 on Saturday, October 8 at Eden Park, Auckland.
England and France took each other on in the second of the four quarter-finals of the 2011 RWC, as the later delivered a second consecutive RWC quarter-final upset by defeating the RWC favourties, England. In 2007, France defeated All Blacks in the quarter-final
to secure their place in the semifinal.
England started the match strongly and after controlling the ball in the initial few minutes of the game, France got hold of ball possession. France was to register points on the scorecard courtesy of their scrum half Dimitri Yachvili in the 10th
minute of the game.
Les Bleus retained ball possession and continued to dominate territory possession to establish control over the game. Yachvili scored his second penalty of the game in the 15th minute to put France in a six point lead.
France was enjoying a beautiful passage of the play, as they completely dominated the Red Rose. France sent their right-winger Vincent Clerc to register their first try of the game in the 21st minute. Clerc’s try took the scorecard reading to 11 – 0. France’s
fullback Maxime Medrad scored their second try of the half to extend their lead up to 16 points.
England was able to put together a few moves but Les Bleus impressively denied them any scoring opportunity, which left them scoreless at the end of the first half. Both teams left the field, with scorecard reading 16 – 0 in the favour of France.
France started the second half, having the self-belief that they were about to stage another RWC quarterfinal upset. They started on the right foot as England found it hard to erase the 16 point defecit.
During the 54th minute of the game, England’s fullback Ben Foden scored his side’s first points in the match. Foden scored their first try, which was followed by fly half Jonny Wilkinson’s 55th minute conversion, to take the scorecard
reading 16 – 7.
For France, their substitute scrum half Francois Trinh – Duc scored a drop goal in the 72nd minute to again extend their lead to double digits. England switched to full throttle in the remaining last minutes of the game but were not good enough
to un-do the expected result. They managed to just score a try courtesy of their left-winger, Mark Cueto in the 76th minute to take the scorecard reading 19 – 12, which remained the same until the end of the second-half.
Speaking at the end of the match, England team’s manager, Martin Johnson, summarised the match as, “With the ball we created two or three real chances in the first half, made some breaks and couldn't finish them off. That was the difference. They scored
their two tries, we should've had two, we didn't have any. The one right before half-time would've made a huge difference. We didn't get it so we were chasing the game.”
France will take on their European counterparts, Wales, in the semi-final of the 2011 RWC.
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