France face Six Nations shoot-out with Scotland after England rout Wales

PARIS – France took on a win-or-bust Six Nations showdown against Scotland on Saturday in Paris after England thrashed sorry Wells to leave the title battle in the balance.

England scored 10 tries in a record 68-14 bonus-point rout in Cardiff that sent them top of the table with 20 points, four ahead of the French.

France must now win their final match against Scotland to secure overall victory in the tournament, their first overall title since the Grand Slam of 2022.

Ireland’s chances of clinching a third consecutive Six Nations title came to an end, however, as they beat Italy 22-17 in Rome in the first match of the day.

“We’ve been building up to this, in every game we’ve put a different aspect of our game on show, we’re just glad to finish it off well,” said the England captain Maro Itoje.

England all but had their match in Wales won by half-time, scoring five tries to lead 33-7 at the break.

It took Itoje just three minutes to open the scoring as Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman, Chandler Cunningham-South and Will Stuart followed the captain’s lead

It was then the turn of scrum-half Alex Mitchell, debutant Henry Pollock, with two of his own, Joe Heyes and Cunningham-South again to add five more tries between them in the second half.

That enabled England to better their previous record Six Nations winning margin over Wales of 40 points, having recorded a 50-10 success at Twickenham in 2006.

For Wales, their 17th consecutive Test loss was the unwanted record for a Tier One nation in the professional era.

It was their 11th consecutive failure to win a championship and guaranteed they would finish with consecutive wooden spoons for the first time.

“It was a tough game. We are gutted with the result but full credit to England, they were brilliant today and clinical when they had that ball,” said Wales skipper Jac Morgan.

‘Game-plan worked well’ –

Italy led at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, through a 12th-minute Monty Ioane try but the Azzurri played over half of the match a man down minimum; Michele Lamoro and Giacomo Nicotera were yellow-carded, before No 8 Ross Vintcent was shown the red card for a head-on-head challenge in the 20th minute.

Ireland’s hooker Dan Sheehan scored three tries, and full-back Hugo Keenan also crossed Italy’s line.

“Happy with five points, perhaps we needed a bit more points difference,” Sheehan told ITV.

Italy were wise to them, and I thought their game-plan worked really well and they put us under pressure.”

France have been in dominant form since being squeezed out 26-25 by England at Twickenham.

Not even the injury-time loss of captain Antoine Dupont for the early stages of last weekend’s 42-27 win over Ireland in Dublin could put a dent in their momentum.

However, stand-in skipper Gregory Alldritt insisted that Dupont’s absence this weekend had “changed nothing” about the team’s overall approach.

“We’re at the end of a Six Nations, the system has been there since the beginning,” Alldritt told reporters on Friday. “We’ve carried on with what we’ve been working on for seven weeks.”

“We’ve gradually progressed,” the No 8 added. “We’ve grown up, we’ve grown more consistent and I hope we show that again on Saturday night.”

Scotland co-captain Finn Russell, who played five years with Paris-based club Racing 92, is fully aware of what is in store for his side.

“They (France) have everything to play for,” added the fly-half. “Hopefully, we can do something to disrupt it. I know it’s going to be a colossal challenge.”