England smash France in first half

All the old clichés need to come out for this match - it was a game a two halves, the better side won, there's an element of "you only play as well as your opposition let you" as well.

In the first half France were as bad as in the match two weeks ago against Wales they were inspired. They showed the flair and talent of a bunch of teenagers seeing a rugby ball for the first time, and that let England play well. In fairness to England they played better than I've seen in a while, there were good running lines, some decent support, slick passing and the like, and whilst some of that is because France just let them, some is due to England improving.

However, those green shoots of recovery are fragile, as the second half showed. If you go in 29-0 up, then in the second half you'd expect a romp to develop, at least up to 40+ points, probably 50+ points. But, France turned around and won the second half 10-5. They started to win the contact areas, they started winning on the penalty count (and it's notable that there was only one side warned about yellow cards, even though none were awarded - and that side was England). England went back to providing slow ball and having mostly clueless looking backs.

France won't be this bad for a long time again. England might build from this and move forward once more. But Frank Hadden won't be shaking in his shoes after the second half. He can turn around, point to the second half and say to his players "If you play to your potential you can do this to England, if you play down to their level, you can lose like that..."