France Women's surprise England
After no score in the first half, France beat England 14-5 in a Women’s Test played in the rain at Stade Jean Bouin in Marseille on Wednesday evening, the first of two Tests between the two countries this week.
France scored two tries – one a penalty try – to one.
France had two good chances to score, first when fullback Jessy Tremouliere kicked ahead in the first half, only for new flyhalf Ceri Large to save. Then in the second half wing Dsioni Aguerre broke and went over only for the ‘try’ to be disallowed. England scored first when Lydia Thompson went over for a try after Rose Jay had disrupted the French scrumhalf and Harriet Millar-Mills secured possession.
France won an attacking line-out, mauled and drove over for a try by lock Assa Koïta which Jessy Tremouliere converted. 7-5 to France
Soon afterwards, with Kay Wilson in the sin bin, France launched a powerful attack and were rewarded with a penalty try.
England coach Gary Street said: “This game provided us with the opportunity to find out a lot about our new, young players. We always knew it was going to be a tough game with so little preparation time and such a young squad. The difficult pitch conditions didn’t help either but that was the same for both sides and to be honest France deserved to win this game.
“We now go into Saturday’s test match with a lot more information about our players and we have the luxury of having a couple of days on our side before being able to pick our strongest team that we have available.”
On Saturday France and England meet at Pierre de Coubertin Stadium in Châteaurenard.
Scorers:
For France:
Tries: Assa Koïta, penalty try
Cons: Jessy Tremouliere 2
For England:
Try: Lydia Thompson
The teams
England: 15 Kay Wilson, 14 Michaela Staniford, 13 Georgina Roberts, 12 Kimberley Oliver, 11 Lydia Thompson, 10 Ceri Large, 9 Natasha Hunt, 8 Sarah Hunter, 7 Hannah Gallagher, 6 Alexandra Matthews, 5 Rowena Burnfield, 4 Harriet Millar-Mills, 3 Rosemarie Crowley, 2 Amy Turner, 1 Rochelle Clark.
Replacements: 16 Victoria Fleetwood, 17 Laura Keates, 18 Tamara Taylor, 19 Isobel Noel-Smith, 20 Rose Jay, 21 Sarah McKenna, 22 Katherine Merchant.
France: 15 Jessy Tremouliere, 14 Anaïs Poirot, 13 Laura Di Muzio, 12 Audrey Anastassiadis, 11 Dioni Aguerre, 10 Aurélie Bailon, 9 Jennyfer Troncy, 8 Audrey Forlani, 7 Manon Andre, 6 Claire Canal, 5 Assa Koïta, 4 Elodie Mert, 3 Elodie Portaries, 2 Gaëlle Mignot, 1 Hélène Ezanno.
Replacements: 16 Lise Arricastre, 17 Emeline Dupont, 18 Cyrielle Bouisset, 19 Sandra Rabier, 20 Chloé Pelle, 21 Marjorie Mayans, 22 Marie Alice Yahe
Referee: Eric Lavit
Assistant referees: Hugo Joly, Frédéric Saunier
