England beat France in dramatic 95 minute Autumn Nations Cup Final

December 06, 2020
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Ultimate Rugby

Owen Farrell kicked the winning penalty in the golden point extra time of the Autumn Nations Cup Final on Saturday as Eddie Jones' closed their account for 2020 with eight wins from nine matches.

A thrilling game at Twickenham was decided by Owen Farrell as he slotted a penalty on the angle. Farrell struggled from the tee in the clash missing four of his 10 shots at goal, one of which would have handed England the win the first period of extra time.

France were excellent throughout despite Fabien Galthie fielding a second-string side due to an agreement between the French Federation and the TOP14 clubs that players could only play three tests this Autumn. 2,000 supporters were lucky enough to be watch the thrilling encounter live as England landed a penalty but the inexperienced French side fought back with a try from full-back Brice Dulin to lead 3-7.

Matthieu Jalibert 🤩#ENGvFRA #AutumnNationsCup

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— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) December 6, 2020

Elliot Daly landed a penalty from near halfway to bring England back within one point. Matthieu Jalibert nailed a pair of penalties by the 35th minute before England enjoyed their best spell of pressure in attack, with Ford and Genge going tantalisingly close to scoring but the French defence stood strong for three minutes on defence and forced a knock on to deny England.

3⃣ Minutes of France's INCREDIBLE defence 🇫🇷#ENGvFRA #AutumnNationsCup pic.twitter.com/xtvIRt44Zi

— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) December 6, 2020

That kept France in front 6-13 at the break. The teams traded kicks in the second period until France, leading 19-12, were penalised with a minute to play and Ford landed his punt to touch on the money into the left-hand corner. From the five-metre lineout, England set up a position for hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie to score and Owen Farrell made it 19-19 with the kick to force the game into sudden-death extra-time.

A minute into the extra period referee Andrew Brace penalised the French on the floor but Farrell saw his kick agonisingly bounce out off the right-hand post. Farrell, though, finally got one more chance early in the second period of extra-time, after Ford put France under pressure with another astute kick towards the corner and this time he was on target to seal the victory.