England claimed a seventh successive Women’s Six Nations title but subjected Twickenham to a white knuckle ride in a ragged 43-42 victory over France.
The Red Roses raced to a 31-7 lead inside half an hour with Emma Sing crossing twice, but their early conviction vanished as France woke up to the opportunity before them in this Grand Slam decider.
England’s early onslaught of tries had provided enough of a cushion to weather the fightback staged by the underdogs, who thrived off a sharp offloading game from their forwards and ingenuity in attack.
It completed a fourth consecutive Grand Slam and registered their 55th win in 56 Tests, but there were frailties on show across the park that will encourage their rivals ahead of the home World Cup in August and September.
Most glaring of all was the volume of missed tackles, especially out wide, and head coach John Mitchell will be seeking answers as to why they collapsed into such a disjointed mess having started like a freight train.
By the 24th minute they looked assured of victory having amassed five tries and hardly putting a foot wrong.
Sharp handling from the excellent Megan Jones sent Sing over for two tries, enabling the rookie full-back to settle her nerves having made a shaky start while deputising for hamstring-injury victim Ellis Kildunne.
The Red Roses’ maul was also a potent weapon, leading directly to a touch down for Lark Atkin-Davies but also repeatedly driving France backwards to create space in attack.
Wings Abby Dow and Claudia MacDonald each went over as forward power was mixed with a cutting edge out wide, much of it facilitated by Jones’ selfless play at outside centre.
But England lost their way, unable to sustain the ferocious pace they had set while also forcing play, with Zoe Harrison’s dropped pass behind her line gifting Pauline Bourdon an opportunistic try.
It was a howler from Harrison that had let the underdogs back into the game, but the fly-half had otherwise produced a tidy first half including setting up Dow’s try with a clever kick.
France struck even though prop Assia Khalfaoui was in the sin bin for a dangerous tackle, and having seen their defence spring leaks freely, they rallied to finish the half with a flourish.
They showed their feel for attack to cross again through Marine Menager and suddenly it was the hosts who were on the ropes, their lead cut to 10 points and momentum firmly against them.
Wing Joanna Grisez scythed through the Red Roses with alarming ease but they responded magnificently with Harrison’s show and go sending Zoe Aldcroft over.
England continued to miss tackles with Sing especially guilty to invite Kelly Arbey over for the visitors’ fourth try – all of which had been converted by Morgane Bourgeois.
Sustained pressure in France’s 22 led to Dow’s second try but they just could not close out the game and their defence cracked once again, Bourgeois doing the damage after her side had skilfully kept the ball alive.
Sing stepped up with a try-saving tackle but no one could stop Grisez marauding over in the right corner, but time had run out for France to engineer the winning score.
