Six Nations 2020: George Ford offers explanation on why England couldn’t score against France

Fly-half insists the atrocious weather conditions in Paris meant England could not throw the ball about ‘willy-nilly’ if they were to get back into the match despite taking no points from nine visits to the French 22

England fly-half George Ford admitted that the atrocious conditions in Paris on Sunday night dictated how they were unable to get back on level terms against France, with the pre-tournament favourites squandering a number of opportunities to score in the Six Nations defeat.

Eddie Jones’s side slumped to a 24-0 deficit inside 55 minutes before finally getting themselves on the scoreboard, but two glorious tries from Jonny May were not enough to claw back the French as they held on for a well-deserved victory.

England had plenty of chances to inflict damage on their opponents in both halves, but out of nine visits to the opposition 22, they failed to muster a single point. Only after France scrum-half Antoine Dupont mistakenly kicked the ball dead a minute before full-time did England work a chance to claim points in the red zone – as both of May’s tries originated well outside the 22 – but with the result already beyond them Owen Farrell wisely chose to kick at goal to take home a losing bonus point.

“The first half was disappointing, not good enough,” said Ford. “I thought our intent and attitude was alright but when France are playing well and you let them into the game a couple of times that's what can happen in a Test match. You go 17-0 down.

“The disappointing thing was that we didn't manage to nip that in the bud earlier but we got ourselves together at half time and it was a lot better second half.

“(We needed) to be more decisive, more committed in our decision-making and get everyone on the same page, especially when we were kicking the ball out of our own half. We felt if we could do that then opportunities would be there and that's how it materialised. I'm proud of the way the boys came back but we need to be better than we were in the first half.”

Replacement Jonathan Joseph came close to crossing only to cough up possession with the line at his mercy, while fellow substitute George Kruis was held up in final minutes as England chased an unlikely victory. But in the first half a number of handling errors cost the visitors in good field position, with Kyle Sinckler, George Furbank and Tom Curry all guilty of coughing up possession or being turned over. Farrell himself was also unusually off-colour, dropping two very simple passes under no pressure, and when England got themselves into scoring positions, they elected to play one-out rugby with a series of pick-and-goes and forward drives that brought no success whatsoever.

Ford believes that while it played into the hands of a French defence now under the tutelage of Englishman Shaun Edwards, it was what England had to do to get a foothold back in the game due to the torrential rain.

“We were calm enough,” Ford added. “We knew we needed to stick to the plan if we were to have any chance of getting back into the game at all. We couldn't go chucking the ball willy-nilly to try to score tries – the conditions meant we had to play a certain way which meant kicking the ball and going from set-piece to set-piece to get a point, which we did.

“(Their) line speed was greater and they put us under pressure a little bit from that. But I still thought we had opportunities particularly on the edges to expose that. There was a little bit of inaccuracy early on which meant we weren't able to put one of those chances away early on and change the game a bit.”

England are now sweating over the fitness of Ford’s Leicester teammate Manu Tuilagi, who went off in the 16th minute with a groin injury and appeared distraught as he left the field. “It was obviously disappointing for Manu. He's a big player for us and it goes without saying what he brings to the game for us.

“Most importantly I hope he's alright and that his injury isn't too bad. I'm not too sure what it is specifically but I'm sure he will do his best to get back out there.”