England Women 17-15 France Ladies: Lydia Thompson snatches Red Roses victory late on
Last Updated: 16/11/19 6:50pm
A late Lydia Thompson try gave England Women a 17-15 win over France Ladies at Sandy Park on Saturday.
England recorded their fourth win in a row against Les Bleus off the back of their 20-10 win in Clermont-Ferrand last weekend.
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes - where England came closest to scoring but an excellent defensive tackle prevented Emily Scarratt from crossing - it was Jessy Tremouliere's penalty that gave from the lead.
France then got the opening try of the game when scrum-half Laure Sansus kicked over the top inside the 22, and beat covering defence to the bounce to hack forward her own kick and then gather to cross.
After missing her first attempt from the tee, Scarratt got England on the board through a simple penalty in front of the posts, and after England worked through a number of phases to earn a second penalty, she knocked that over for a 6-8 half-time deficit as well as reaching 500 points in Test rugby.
The first points after the break went England's way with another Scarratt penalty and some territory inside the France 22 was rewarded with more points, again from Scarratt's boot for a 12-8 lead.
The French crossed for a second time on 65 minutes to retake the lead when from a five-metre scrum Sansus darted down the blindside to work a two on one and fed Caroline Boujard for an easy score, with Tremouliere adding the conversion.
England played the closing stages of the game a player down after Zoe Aldcroft was sent to the sin-bin for her clearout but Romane Menager was also shown a yellow card minutes later for offiside.
A poor clearance kick allowed the Red Roses to secure a dramatic 79th-minute try when the ball was worked to the right wing and Scarratt fed Thompson and the winger sprinted in and dived over for the victory.
