Another Saturday night at the movies with a stunningly different conclusion. England have been involved in a few thrillers in recent times but this one could not have had a more dramatic plot twist. The collective roar which greeted the decisive 79th-minute try by the replacement Elliot Daly, bursting unstoppably on to a short ball from his young fly-half Fin Smith, must almost have rattled the windows in Calais.
Previously it had seemed England were about to lose another tight game when France’s precocious winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey went over for his second try six minutes from time. With barely 90 seconds left, though, England had one last chance and, in a set strike move off a lineout, Smith and Daly combined to clinch a result that transforms their team’s Six Nations prospects.
