By Mally (14/02/03)
February 14 2003

It's not often I find myself agreeing with Stuart Barnes but this evening I did. The match was ruled by whistle happy referee, who ruined the game. Scottish referee, Iain Ramage, appeared to have forgotten what his yellow card was for, choosing to give endless penalties in this stop start match. England started the match at pace, Grayson quickly feeding the ball out to the backs, who attacked the french line. fullback Josh Lewsey and winger Dan Scarbrough combining well from the off. Just two minutes into the game Paul Grayson slotted a penalty for a high tackle on Josh Lewsey gave England the first points of the match. 3 - 0 to England.

The first 20 minutes were full of some great rugby, a Grayson kick & Lewsey-Scarbrough combination took England up to the half way, but at the ensuing ruck Lewsey was penalised. France took England back into their own 22, Grayson cleared with a superb kick into space behind the french defence, Ollie Smith collected it, passed to Gloucester's Marcel Garvey, who went for the gap and was tackled on the french 22m line. A minutes later saw another run from Leeds Tykes' Dan Scarbrough. 12 minutes in England worked themselves in a strong position 5m short of the try line. France were penalised at the scrum and Grayson took the kick from slap bang in front of the posts. 6 - 0 to England.

England dominated at the lineout, with Steve Borthwick on fine form, winning the ball on the French lineout.

An off the ball tackle on Dominici by Johnston, gave Mercier his first kick at goal reducing the gap. 6 -3 to England.

From here the game lost it's flow, Iain Ramage the referee, seemed to be blowing up for everything, particularly offsides but rather than knocking it on the head by yellow carding the persistant offenders, instead he gave penalties. Grayson slotted one, and then missed the next taking the score to 9 - 3. England were lucky as Mercier appeared to have forgotten his kicking boots missing 2 penalties.

With the first half almost over, England looked to be the better side by a mile. France were struggling in the lineout and in the scrum, and of the two sides it was England, who had looked more like scoring a try, but then with 41 minutes gone the French clicked. Snaffling the ball off the floor on the half way line France worked up into the England 22, from a maul 5m short of the tryline the ball went out to the french number 12, Bousses, who snuck through a gap in the England defence to score the first try of the match. Mercier slotted the conversion, 9 - 10 to France.

England had another penalty just before the half time whistle but the kick did not go over. Half time score 9 - 10 to France.

Unfortunately the first 20 minutes of the second half was also stop-start and more penalties awarded, Grayson put England back ahead 12 - 10 just a couple minutes into the half. Then a few minutes later it was France's turn, 12 - 13 to France. To be honest the game got a bit dull, England kept pushing but could not find the line, the referee still could not find his yellow card and so the infringements continued, along with the referee tootling on his whistle every couple of seconds...

From dominating the French, England had gone a touch flat, the effort was there but not the finishing, it was starting to look like France could steal the win. However then Grayson had another couple of penalty kicks and England went back in front 18 - 13 to England. However what really set this game alight was the introduction of Newcastle Falcons' Jamie Noon 69 minutes in. Replacing Leicester Tigers' Ollie Smith, who had not had a bad game, Jamie had an almost immediate impact. England won their own lineout at halfway, the forwards drove the ball forward 10 metres, the scrum-half Wood, passed the ball out to Grayson, who made a half break, Jamie Noon came in on a superb line taking the ball up into the french 22, offloading in the tackle to Hazell, who in turn fed Joe Worsely, who went over under the posts for England's first try. Grayson slotted the easy conversion, 25 - 13 to England.

We had a game again as France tried to hit back, but took the wrong option and the ball went into touch.

Jamie Noon made breaks, got stuck in on the tackles and definitely stood out. A quick pass from Noon out to Dan Scarbrough, as a french tackler came in, let Scarbrough break up the wing before being tackled.

78 minutes in and England were right up in the french 22. A revitalised England kept pushing for the try, the two Worseleys (the prop and the back rower) combining to attack the line but coming up just short.

England maintain the pressure and Marcel Garvey looked to have gone over but failed to ground the ball. From the resulting scrum Joe Worsely went for the line and was tackled, Wood passes the ball across to Grayson who shifts it across the back line, to Noon, Noon sends it out to Lewsey who spins it out to Dan Scarbrough, sidestep, spin round and Scabs scores his first England 'A' try! Grayson missed the conversion, 30 - 13 to England.

Final score 30 - 13.

Jamie won praise from all the commentators, he stood out from the minute he came on. Fresh legs may be part of it, but Jamie came on and England find the try line - just a coincidence? Noonie ran some excellent lines and put in a good performance, being involved in both tries. 15 minutes is not much time to make an impact but Noonie managed it!