Rugby World cup : France makes a crunch of England

France-England Rugby World Cup semi-final. This fixture is traditionally qualified as “le crunch” since not only it is offering a place for the Rugby World Cup 2007’s final but above all because French and British teams are considered like the two best teams of the Northern Hemisphere and are always promising high intensity matches.

France beat England 19-12 for a stunning World Cup quarter-final victory here on Saturday.

France, making light of pool phase defeats by New Zealand and Tonga were, against all predictions, 16-0 ahead at half-time after tries from Vincent Clerc and Maxime Medard followed two penalties from Dimitri Yachvili.

Full-back Ben Foden gave England hope with a 53rd minute try converted by Jonny Wilkinson.

However, Francois Trinh-Duc extended France's lead to 12 points with a drop-goal.

But Mark Cueto's try three minutes from time, awarded after prolonged study by the video referee, gave England hope although Toby Flood's missed conversion meant Martin Johnson's men still needed a converted try to send the match into extra-time.

That proved beyond England and France went through to a semi-final against Wales, 22-10 winners over Ireland earlier on Saturday, back at Eden Park on Saturday, October 15.