France overcome by mighty England

In the end, he needed no support, moral or otherwise, to head off the French and crash through the one tackle which came far too late to stop him. 'I expected to be tackled straight away,' he said. 'Luckily, a gap opened up. I managed to ride one tackle and after that I was looking for support. But when their full back didn't come towards me, I thought: "There's only one option, here - go for the line".'

England, until then three points behind, would have been in a real sweat had they not been rescued in almost equal measure by Iain Balshaw and the video referee. Balshaw, required for the first time to show he can defend, produced three last-ditch tackles and the technology cost France two tries.

In less enlightened times, both would surely have been given and the video evidence catching Christophe Dominici and Stephane Glas with a trailing foot in touch a split-second before touching down would have been shrugged off as a meaningless irrelevance.

In that event, England would have got no more than they deserved for a first half condemned by coach Clive Woodward as 'abysmal'.

France had put enough doubts in English minds for Martin Johnson's team to welcome the refuge of the dressing-room and a few blunt home-truths, so the importance of Hill's try so soon after the break cannot be overstated. It brought a reassurance which enabled England to give another exhilarating exhibition reminiscent of Sean Fitzpatrick's All Blacks at their peak five years ago.

Having worked a flanker on the French, Hill, for once, had no complaints. 'When Hilly's not moaning, you know there's something wrong,' said Neil Back, his back row partner. 'That's just the way he is. So I hope he keeps moaning for a long time to come, for England and the Lions, because he's a great player.'

The question now is not how many English the Lions will take but how few they will leave at home. Jason Robinson, given half an hour this time, will surely have convinced the selectors, assuming they still needed convincing, that they dare not go to Australia without him.

He initiated one try, laid another on the proverbial plate and another flood raised England's aggregate second half score from their three home championship matches into three figures: 102-3.

They even had time to bring a new trick out of the box, Mike Catt reacting faster than his bemused opposite number to seize Healey's over-the-shoulder chip, an idea which he had pinched from Geordan Murphy, his inventive Irish colleague at Leicester.

By then France had contributed to their downfall with their inexplicably early withdrawal of their locks, Abdel Benazzi and Lionel Nallet. They were never the same again.

ENGLAND (with ratings): Balshaw 9 (Worsley, 77min); Healey 8, Greenwood 7, Catt 8, Cohen 7 (Robinson 56, 8); Wilkinson 8, Dawson 7 (Bracken 80); Leonard 7 (Flatman, 41-46), Greening 6, White 7, Johnson 8, Borthwick 7 (Corry, 30-78, 7), Hill 9 (Perry, 77), Back 7, Dallaglio 7. FRANCE: Sadourny; Bernat-Salles, Garbajosa, Glas, Dominici; Merceron, Galthie; Marconnet, Ibanez, De Villiers, Nallet (Auradou, 49), Benazzi (T Lievremont,

49), Milheres, Magne, Pelous. Referee: Tappe Henning (S Africa).