France’s hellfire and brimstone crush Red Rose in a Can-Can cauldron | Andy Bull


Hosts reply with interest to Eddie Jones’s tough pre-match talk as sloppy England founder on an impeccable defence organised by Shaun Edwards

To each man his own hell, and here in Paris we found out what it looks and sounds like for the 15 men in the England starting team, 17 points down while the big brass band in the north stand bangs out the Can-Can and 70,000 French fans sing along.

Fair to say that when that’s what is ringing in your ears at the Stade de France, the game is probably not working out quite the way you’d hoped it would. The band struck it up midway through the first half, right after France had scored their second try. England, at that point, were standing in a circle under their own posts, wondering which way led back into the match.

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