{"id":330687,"date":"2026-03-15T10:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330687\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T10:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:47:12","slug":"france-back-to-back-six-nations-champs-after-beating-england-in-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/330687\/","title":{"rendered":"France back-to-back Six Nations champs after beating England in thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

France was overwhelmed with joy and relief after its extraordinary Six Nations title-clinching 48-46 victory over England this morning.<\/p>\n

Joy for winning successive titles for the first time since 2006-07.<\/p>\n

Relief after conceding 96 points and 14 tries in its last two matches, and still taking the championship.<\/p>\n

When they finish celebrating their record eighth title in the Six Nations era, and their third under coach Fabien Galthi\u00e9, their defensive fragility will not be toasted.<\/p>\n

Six Nations championship decided in extraordinary last-minute twist – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharp-shooting fullback Thomas Ramos sealed France’s latest championship with a last-second penalty kick in a chaotic thriller at the Stade de France.<\/p>\n

England scored seven of the game’s 13 tries and had the bonus-point fourth by the 35th minute. Scotland also scored seven tries when it won 50-40 a week ago at Murrayfield to shatter France’s Grand Slam march.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that we still have a bit of character in these moments, we will have to build on that,\u201d Ramos said.<\/p>\n

But he also noted all the points they conceded were a warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to enjoy this victory, but for what comes next we\u2019ll have to be honest with ourselves, because at this level you can\u2019t concede 50 and or even more than 40 points,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cIf we want to exist in major tournaments, with so many tries conceded, it won\u2019t be with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

France defence coach Shaun Edwards wasn’t overly concerned about the leaky defense. While he admitted the high scores were \u201cfrustrating\u201d for coaches like him, they were commonplace.<\/p>\n

\"Louis<\/p>\n

Louis Bielle\u2011Biarrey of France celebrates one of his four tries against England. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby at the moment, particularly the Six Nations, is just phenomenal,\u201d Edwards said. “I remember coaching a team in Wales who went five games without conceding one try and that\u2019s impossible now. It is for the better of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

France has never won the Rugby World Cup but was rebuilding a youthful side with the clear ambition of claiming its first world championship in Australia next year.<\/p>\n

Flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert teared up after the final whistle. He acknowledged France sometimes lacked discipline and intensity but praised the team’s fighting spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if everything wasn\u2019t perfect, we gave everything we could,\u201d Jalibert said. \u201cThat\u2019s also the character of this team. Being able to grab a bonus point in Scotland when we were struggling, and being able to win tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lock Thibaud Flament said they were \u201cscared at times\u201d and that a turning point was when England prop Ellis Genge was sin-binned for collapsing a maul at the end of the first half. France was awarded a penalty try and rallied from 27-17 down to lead 38-27 while Genge was in the sin-bin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crazy match,\u201d Flament said. \u201cWe knew the English would give everything. They\u2019re a team that\u2019s never out, and we saw that again today. We stayed united, it wasn\u2019t easy. We gave everything, and it paid off in the end. Thomas [Ramos] was incredible, once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

France wing Louis Bielle\u2011Biarrey continued his remarkable run of form by scoring four of his side’s six tries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France was overwhelmed with joy and relief after its extraordinary Six Nations title-clinching 48-46 victory over England this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-330687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}