England Women stun Six Nations champions France 26-13 at Twickenham
Sunday 5 February 2017 12:55, UK
England Women produced a stunning comeback to recover from a 13-point half-time deficit and beat defending Six Nations champions France 26-13 on Saturday evening.
Emily Scarratt kicked 16 points at Twickenham as the Red Rose started this year's tournament with a win.
The hosts began slowly and fell behind inside five minutes when Shannon Izar intercepted a loose pass and ran 80 yards to touch down.
A penalty from Christelle Le Duff increased the lead before a 32nd-minute try from skipper Gaelle Mignot put the French in a commanding position at the break.
Simon Middleton's side had plenty of work to do and they finally registered on the scoresheet four minutes into the second period through a well-struck penalty from Scarratt.
Danielle Waterman then dummied her way through to score in the corner and Scarratt added the conversion as the fightback gathered momentum.
Scarratt's success with the boot continued and she made a match-winning contribution by kicking three penalties inside 13 minutes to put the home side six points ahead with time running out.
After the disappointing first-half performance, England managed to keep France's attack at bay in the second and they made sure of a memorable victory when Scarratt converted after Amy Wilson Hardy danced through to touch down late on.
Earlier on Saturday, captain Carys Phillips applied the finishing touch as Wales made a promising start to their Six Nations campaign with a 20-8 victory over Italy in Ancona, while Jenny Murphy's injury-time try secured a 22-15 victory for Ireland over Scotland on Friday night.
