World Cup Semi-final/ England 14 France 9: This defeat will haunt French rugby like no other in its proud, often wonderful, often unfulfilling, rollercoaster of a history.
Once again, in the business end of an increasingly perplexing and anti-climactic World Cup, as with the quarter-finals the weekend before, this semi-final was more about one team losing than the other actually winning.
Bernard Laporte will now, assuredly, become the least popular sports minister in the history of the state, for after a second successive semi-final loss to les Rosbifs, most anger and frustration will be directed at the selections and strategies of Mad Bernie.
Speaking to a host of French journalists after the game, one found them remarkably sanguine: Les Bleusgot what they deserved.
"They did not play French rugby," said one senior pundit.
Well, not after the first quarter or so. Then, Les Bleushad been sparked into action by the shock of a needlessly conceded second-minute try to Josh Lewsey.
Damien Traille had fatally dallied in patrolling Andy Gomarsall's superb box kick - ironically, à la Clement Poitrenaud, the specialist fullback ahead of whom he was picked for his kicking game, for the benefit of another Wasps player, Rob Howley, in the last throes of the 2004 Heineken European Cup final - before slipping for Lewsey to pounce.
Perhaps they would have been better off going further behind. In any event, for 20 minutes or so, their forwards rumbled menacingly, they dominated territory and they used the full width of the pitch in moving the old juggernaut of an English pack around a throbbing Stade de France.
Lionel Beauxis inched them in front with a couple of penalties, but then they lost the courage of their early convictions and reverted to programmed type under Laporte. In their increasingly brain-dead rugby, no-one was more guilty than the inexperienced and unfortunate Beauxis. À la another inexperienced outhalf four years ago, Frédéric Michalak, Beauxis collapsed under pressure, going through with ill-advised kicks or drop-goal attempts as if a robot operating on fading batteries.
It didn't help that a patently exhausted Jean-Baptiste Elissalde was lobbing the ball out to him in instalments. Elissalde's kicking also went to pot, as did Traille's.
In a game riddled by fear the English kickers were not much better, even if Jonny Wilkinson, in this age of the celebrity sports star, will hog the headlines again.
The net result was the worst demonstration of tactical kicking in any World Cup knock-out match ever and a record for unchallenged marks inside the 22s courtesy of overcooked kicks.
The fizz also went out of an emotionally and physically drained French pack. Here, they weren't helped by the early replacement of Fabien Pelous - a superior leader, scrummager and mauler - by Sébastien Chabal.
But if the French had the rub of the decisions a week before, save for a questionable penalty at the start of the second half for non-existent handling on the ground by Wilkinson, which the English outhalf quickly cancelled out, they certainly didn't here.
Credit to England for identifying France's primary weapon, the maul, and limiting its potential damage by infiltrating the French ball carriers or letting one man "tackle" the maul legitimately. But in this they were served by Jonathan Kaplan, who let them pull down eight or nine mauls with impunity or enter from the side, and was almost as lenient at the breakdown.
He and his fellow South African touch judge, Marius Jonker, also ignored a blatant offside by Gomarsall at the pivotal five-metre scrum following the match-saving 68th-minute tap tackle by a flying Joe Worsley on Vincent Clerc after Julien Bonnaire had tapped down Yannick Jauzion's crosskick. Kaplan gave a very dubious penalty against Chabal for not releasing when it seemed the ball was trapped beneath blue bodies with no white jersey contesting for it.
They looked like two awful, and huge, decisions.
History has been apt to repeat itself in this World Cup and the suspicion has lurked that, mentally, Michalak has never been the same player since that 2003 semi-final. Once France fell behind, he couldn't rescue it, and you never really thought he could. In truth, he actually got France running at England again but a shocking drop-out by Traille and an intemperate "elbow" by Chabal on Toby Flood led in turn to Wilkinson's decisive late penalty and drop goal.
By contrast, once they had a sniff of the winning line, England knew how to get there: work Wilkinson into field-goal range to land the only one of eight attempted drop-goals on the night, then send on Lawrence Dallaglio to close out the game.
You wonder what other legacy they left on this game. Their defence was again excellent, epitomised by Wilkinson's tackles on Pelous (which put him out of the game) and Chabal. Phil Vickery rolled back the years to destroy Olivier Milloud. Mark Regan, Simon Shaw and Martin Corry had big games. There were no weak links. Gomarsall kicked poorly but passed superbly, while Mike Catt tackled big.
More than anybody perhaps, in the penultimate match of his outstanding career, the one man prepared to have a go was Jason Robinson. His footwork and counter-attacking twice lifted England and in the 74th minute he drew the fateful high arm from Dimitri Szarzewski. Did he play for it?
Judging by the red, white and blue painted on the faces of all nationalities, it appeared as if the world was in union against England. Perhaps that is unfair on them; you have to admire their sheer cussedness. But it is not rugby to warm the hearts of neutrals. You would love to see daring, courage and flair win out. Instead, it's as if this is the Anti-rugby World Cup.
Scoring sequence: 2 mins: Lewsey try 0-5; 8: Beauxis pen 3-5; 18: Beauxis pen 6-5 (half-time 6-5); 44: Beauxis pen 9-5; 47: Wilkinson pen 9-8; 74: Wilkinson pen 9-11; 78: Wilkinson drop goal 9-14.
FRANCE: D Traille (Biarritz); V Clerc (Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), C Heymans (Toulouse); L Beauxis (Stade Français), J-B Elissalde (Toulouse); O Milloud (Bourgoin), R Ibanez (Wasps, capt), P de Villiers (Stade Français); F Pelous (Toulouse), J Thion (Biarritz); S Betsen (Biarritz), T Dusautoir (Toulouse), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin). Replacements: S Chabal (Sale) for Pelous (25 mins), D Szarzewski (Stade Français) for Ibanez, F Michalak (Toulouse) for Beauxis (both 51 mins), C Dominici (Stade Français) for Heymans (60 mins), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz) for Betsen, J-B Poux (Toulouse) for de Villiers (both 66 mins). Not used: C Poitrenaud (Toulouse).
ENGLAND: J Robinson (Unattached); P Sackey (Wasps), M Tait (Newcastle), M Catt (London Irish), J Lewsey (Wasps); J Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), A Gomarsall (Harlequins); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Regan (Bristol), P Vickery (Wasps); S Shaw (Wasps), B Kay (Leicester); M Corry (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins). Replacements: D Hipkiss (Leicester) for Lewsey (40 mins), J Worsley (Wasps) for Moody (54 mins), M Stevens (Bath) for Vickery (56 mins), G Chuter (Leicester) for Regan (66 mins), L Dallaglio (Wasps) for Easter, T Flood ( Newcastle) for Catt (both 69 mins), P Richards (London Irish) for Gomarsall (71 mins).
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan(South Africa).
