France sweep to Six Nations title as England hand Wales record humiliation
France swept to the Six Nations title with a 35-16 victory over Scotland on Saturday, edging out bitter rivals England whose 68-14 rout of hapless Wales had sent the championship battle down to the wire.
On a chilly night in Paris, France held their nerve to emerge champions for the first time since their Grand Slam-winning campaign of 2022.
Les Bleus, who were only 16-13 ahead at the break at the Stade de France, ran in four tries to secure a bonus-point victory and a one-point winning margin over England in the final standings.
Ireland's slender hopes of wrapping up a third successive Six Nations ended despite defeating Italy 22-17 in Rome in the day's opening match.
France full-back Thomas Ramos starred with 20 points to lead his team to victory, making light of the absence of iconic scrum-half Antoine Dupont who was injured in last week's victory in Ireland.
"We showed resilience in defence second half, when we only conceded three points," said France defence coach Shaun Edwards.
Ramos's haul included a try as part of a 19-point blitz in 20 minutes just after the interval although France missed out on the Grand Slam after their narrow round two loss away to England.
France controlled the opening quarter to lead 10-0 thanks to a converted Yoram Moefana try and Ramos penalty.
By the 25-minute mark, the hosts were down a man as hooker Peato Mauvaka was yellow-carded for a headbutt on scrum-half Ben White.
Finn Russell cut the deficit before Ramos reinstated the 10-point advantage to make it 13-3, which moved him ahead of Frederic Michalak as Les Bleus' leading scorer.
Winger Darcy Graham crossed for Scotland with Russell then bringing his side level.
Ramos re-established the three-point lead three minutes from the interval but Scotland were denied the lead when Blair Kinghorn's foot was adjudged to be in touch in the build-up to Tom Jordan's try.
Just after the break, Louis Bielle-Biarrey scored a record-equalling eighth try in one campaign.
"Since the World Cup in 2023 he has gotten better and better, and hopefully he gets better again. He is a sensational athlete, a wonderful guy," said Edwards.
Ramos added the extras to make it a 10-point game with 35 minutes left and he stretched the lead with a try off a rolling maul.
His sixth successful kick made it 30-16 before Moefana added his second try of the night.
- 'Happy to finish well' -
In Cardiff, England scored 10 tries with a bonus-point triumph which had temporarily moved them top of the table and piled the pressure on France.
England had their match in Wales all but wrapped up at half-time after scoring five tries to lead 33-7 at the break.
Captain Maro Itoje opened the scoring as early as the third minute, with Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman, Chandler Cunningham-South and Will Stuart all following the skipper's lead.
Scrum-half Alex Mitchell, debutant Henry Pollock, with two of his own, Joe Heyes and Cunningham-South again added five more tries between them in the second half.
That allowed England to surpass their previous record Six Nations winning margin over Wales of 40 points set during a 50-10 success at Twickenham in 2006.
"The team has been progressing, this is a young and evolving team," said England coach Steve Borthwick.
For Wales, their 17th successive Test defeat represented an unwanted record for a Tier One country in the professional era.
Their 11th straight championship loss meant they had finished with back-to-back wooden spoons for the first time.
- 'Emotions raw' -
"It's a very difficult one to reflect on, especially now because the emotions are quite raw," admitted Wales interim coach Matt Sherratt.
In Rome, Italy took the lead at the Stadio Olimpico through Monty Ioane's 12th-minute try.
However, the Azzurri played more than half the match at least a man down after Michele Lamaro and Giacomo Nicotera were yellow-carded, while No 8 Ross Vintcent was shown a 20-minute red card for a head-on-head challenge.
Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan scored a hat-trick of tries, with full-back Hugo Keenan also crossing Italy's line.
"Happy with five points, we probably needed a bit more points difference," Sheehan told ITV.
Gonzalo Quesada's Italy side finished fifth in the table with five points, two points above Wales.
"We were not all that far away off getting a win which would have been incredible but at the same time there's a lot of which we can be proud," said Quesada.
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