Wales completed their transformation from World Cup flops to secure their second Grand Slam in four years and send the nation into raptures.

An early 9-3 lead was whittled away by France after Gavin Henson’s sin-binning on the stroke of half-time.

But Shane Williams got the crucial score on 60 minutes, becoming Wales’ all-time top try scorer in the process. Stephen Jones’s steady hand from the bench helped them home, with the superb Martyn Williams adding a second try.
France entered the game having not lost a championship game in Cardiff since 1996 and needing a 19-point win to steal the RBS Six Nations title from Wales.

But with the packed crowd brewing the enclosed Millennium Stadium into a fervent cauldron of expectation, Wales were spurred into early action.

From turnover ball in midfield, James Hook created space for Mark Jones down the right with a magical sleight of hand.

A try was begging, but Jones could not find Lee Byrne on his inside shoulder and the home side had to be content with an opening penalty from Hook.

Woeful French kicking - with David Skrela the main culprit - and direct midfield running from Tom Shanklin and Henson increased the pressure, but Hook missed a tricky penalty chance.

The fly-half made amends with an 18th-minute kick, cancelled out by a Jean-Baptiste Elissalde penalty following Ryan Jones’s untidy work at the restart.

The gift-giving from restarts continued, Thierry Dusautoir’s error allowing Hook to ease the Wales lead back out to 9-3 with his third penalty.

Les Bleus finally began to find a foothold in the Wales half, until a superb on-the-floor steal from man-of-the-match Martyn Williams relieved some of the pressure.

Wales’ blitz defence finally showed flaws in the final play of the half, and - with France already playing a penalty advantage - Henson’s head-high tackle on Fulgence Ouedraogo led to a yellow card for the centre.

Elissalde slotted the final kick of the half to cut the gap to three points, Hook missing an opportunity to cancel that out after the break when Shane Williams pinned the counter-attacking Vincent Clerc deep in his own 22.

Then Elissalde made no mistake with his third penalty to level the scores, the visitors scoring six points in Henson’s absence.

Ian Gough was winning his 50th cap for Wales, and he was joined on that landmark by Duncan Jones who temporarily stepped off the bench following a head injury to Gethin Jenkins.

Wales coach Warren Gatland decide to replace Hook at fly-half, Stephen Jones coming off the bench along with hooker Matthew Rees for Huw Bennett.

It was a France mistake that hurt the visitors, though, Les Bleus spilling the ball 40 yards from their own line.

Shane Williams pounced, hacking through and showing composure to ground for the try after the ball bounced off the post, taking him clear of Clerc as the 2008 tournament’s leading try scorer, and ahead of Gareth Thomas on 41 in Wales’ all-time list.

France coach Marc Lievremont changed his half-backs, but it was Stephen Jones who got the next score, a penalty stretching the lead to 19-9.

The visitors were pushed off an attacking five-metre scrum by the Welsh eight, but any thought that the game was won was dispelled by Dimitri Yachvili’s 71st-minute penalty.

Stephen Jones immediately replied with a long-range goal of his own to restore the comfort zone.
Mark Jones was narrowly denied the chance of immortality, breaking from his own line and embarking on a dazzling run only to be hauled down inches short of a memorable score.

It was left to Martyn Williams to crown the day, the flanker picking up from 25-yards out and dashing home through a ragged defence.

Wales’ 10th Grand Slam was secured 100 years after they won their first, and home fans left to carry on the party of the century.

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Wales: Byrne, M. Jones, Shanklin, Henson, S. Williams, Hook, Phillips, Jenkins, Bennett, A. Jones, Gough, A. Jones, Thomas, M. Williams, R. Jones.
Replacements: S. Jones for Hook (56), Rees for Bennett (56), D. Jones for A. Jones (71), Evans for Gough (71). Not Used: Delve, Peel, Parker.

Sin Bin: Henson (40).

France: Pens: Elissalde 3, Yachvili. France: Floch, Clerc, Jauzion, Traille, Malzieu, Skrela, Elissalde, Barcella, Szarzewski, Mas, Nallet, Thion, Dusautoir, Ouedraogo, Bonnaire.
Replacements: Heymans for Floch (67), Trinh-Duc for Skrela (63), Yachvili for Elissalde (67), Servat for Szarzewski (44), Poux for Mas (62), Mela for Thion (75), Vermeulen for Ouedraogo (62).

Scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde says France have nothing to fear from Wales in Saturday’s Six Nations decider.

Elissalde has doubts over the Welsh level of ability but concedes that winning the Six Nations and denying Wales a Grand Slam will be tricky.

“Their focus is more channelled, but looking at the level of their rugby and ours, there isn’t normally a comparison,” he said.

“Wales’ players haven’t changed, just the coaching staff.”

The Toulouse star says Wales should not be regarded as highly as New Zealand or Australia and that the hosts could freeze under pressure for success in Cardiff.

France did exactly that against Argentina and England when hosting last year’s World Cup.

Elissalde, whose team need to win by 20 points or more to claim the title, said: “We mustn’t let ourselves get submerged by the wave of red that is going to crash into us at the start of the match, especially as there is no reason to be worried.

“This isn’t the All Blacks or the Australians we are talking about here. We mustn’t go there feeling we are going to be the victims, rather the favourites.

“The Welsh are still the Welsh. We haven’t lost over there for ages. And in the preparation match for the World Cup, they conceded 30-odd points to us (France won 34-7 in Cardiff).

“It is up to us to ignore everything that is surrounding the match. We saw in the World Cup in France that we caved in with all the emotion and you can freeze in your own back-yard.

“I hope that it will be the same with the Welsh. They are playing for the Grand Slam in front of their own public - that doesn’t happen to them very often.

“It can be a source of extreme motivation, but it can also affect them as well.

“To go and put 20 points on the Welsh, with the confidence they have at the moment, is not impossible but very tricky

France coach Marc Lievremont has opted for experience over youth in making six changes to his squad to face Wales in Saturday’s RBS Six Nations decider.
 
Scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, back after injury, fly-half David Skrela and full-back Cedric Heymans all return among the backline options.

Flanker Thierry Dusautoir, number eight Elvis Vermeulen and hooker William Servat return among the forwards.

Aurelien Rougerie is dropped despite a try-scoring display against Italy.

Centre Yann David, scrum-half Julien Tomas, flanker Ibrahim Diarra, number eight Louis Picamoles and Guilhem Guirado also drop out of the match-day 22.

“Wales are a tough assignment and we needed players that already know and understand our system so can work at fine-tuning our tactics in the short time that is left for us,” said Lievremont.

“We made mistakes at the line-out and in the scrum against Italy and it’s true that it does not help in these sectors by making so many chances to the squad. But we knew what the dangers would be,” added forwards coach Didier Retiere.

France will retain their Six Nations crown if they beat Wales by 20 points, or by 19 points but with more tries than their opponents, with both teams currently tied on 11 tries overall.

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FRANCE SQUAD:
Backs: Cedric Heymans, Anthony Floch, Julien Malzieu, Vincent Clerc, Damien Traille, Yannick Jauzion, David Skrela, Francois Trinh-Duc, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Dimitri Yachvili.
Forwards: Fabien Barcella, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Nicolas Mas, William Servat, Dimitri Szarzewski, Jerome Thion, Lionel Nallet, Arnaud Mela, Julien Bonnaire, Thierry Dusautoir, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Elvis Vermeulen

 France coach Marc Lievremont has sprung yet more selection surprises in making eight changes to his 22 for the Six Nations match against Italy on 9 March.
 
Six players who began the 24-13 loss to England - Cedric Heymans, Morgan Parra, Thierry Dusautoir, Lionel Faure, Julien Bonnaire and David Marty - drop out.

David Skrela and William Servat have also been omitted from the 22.

Uncapped quintet Fabien Barcella, Yann David, Guilhem Guirado, Julien Tomas and Ibrahim Diarra have been called up.

In addition, back-row Imanol Harinordoquy, Toulouse centre Yannick Jauzion and impressive Clermont winger Julien Malzieu, who is back from injury, have all been recalled.

And Lievremont admitted he is taking the opportunity to assess his options ahead of his side’s potentially crunch tie away at Wales on 15 March.

“We wanted to open up the squad to see new players,” he said. “It is possible I’ll modify (the squad) again for Wales.”

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France squad:

Forwards: Fabien Barcella (Auch), Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Lionel Nallet (Castres), Jerome Thion (Biarritz), Pascal Pape (Stade Francais), Ibrahim Diarra (Montauban), Louis Picamoles (Montpellier), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz)

Backs: Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Julien Tomas (Montpellier), Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Yann David (Bourgoin), Julien Malzieu (Clermont), Anthony Floch (Clermont), Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont), Vincent Clerc (Toulouse)

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England repeated their World Cup semi-final win over France to end Les Bleus’ 100% record in the Six Nations.

England took the lead through Paul Sackey and a conversion and penalty from Jonny Wilkinson made it 10-0.

France hit back through Lionel Nallet’s converted try but a second Wilkinson penalty made it 13-7 at the break.

A Morgan Parra penalty cut the gap to three but Wilkinson added a penalty and drop-goal before Richard Wigglesworth’s last-gasp try killed off French hopes.

England had not won away to France in the Six Nations since 2000 but the last time they met in Paris, in the World Cup semi-final in October, England ground out a 14-9 win.

On that day France, under former coach Bernard Laporte, tried to match England’s traditional strengths by playing a conservative style.

But a change of coach, with former Under-21 boss Marc Lievremont taking the reins, has seen them revert to the style known around the world as “French flair”.

The match was billed as a clash between England’s grizzled pack and French youthful exuberance, and to a large extent it proved to be just that.

England showed flashes of wit and invention in attack and their defence was heroic, but in the end it was their dominant pack which proved to be the difference between the two sides.

The hosts certainly followed the script from the opening whistle.

England did not legally lay a hand on the ball for the first two minutes and barely touched it for the first five as France whipped the ball about with abandon.

However, that made them a touch predictable and as they spun the ball wide once too often Jamie Noon hammered France full-back Cedric Heymans in the tackle.

In the process the Newcastle centre knocked the ball forward but the referee was unsighted and Sackey pounced.

The winger, who had trials with Crystal Palace, Reading and Aston Villa football clubs as a teenager, demonstrated his soccer skills as he kicked ahead before scoring in composed fashion.

Wilkinson drilled the conversion between the posts and when France held on at a ruck after England stole a line-out he slotted the penalty to put the visitors into an early 10-0 lead.

France went into the match without a recognised top-line kicker, with centre Damien Traille handed the role, and when they were given their first shot at goal the Biarritz man missed a difficult long-range effort.

England suffered a blow after 20 minutes as James Haskell limped off with an injured ankle, with Leicester’s Tom Croft coming on as replacement to win his first cap.

Within five minutes the hosts had scored their first try. Scrum-half Parra, just 19, orchestrated a surging attack and giant lock Nallet was on hand to drill over from a yard.

Traille converted and although Wilkinson soon hit back with a penalty after France infringed at a ruck, Traille belted a kickable penalty against the posts to ensure the visitors led 13-7 at the break.

France played with plenty of pace in the first 40 minutes but they upped the tempo even further after the interval and hit back when the precocious Parra replaced Traille as kicker and slotted a tricky penalty after hooker Mark Regan lost his discipline at a ruck.

However, as the half wore on the French whirlwind subsided and the England pack began to make some headway, with Andrew Sheridan and Co putting the French front row under increasing pressure.

They failed to take advantage of two penalties as Wilkinson firstly missed to the right and then fell short.

But the fly-half made no mistake with a 65th-minute drop-goal after a thunderous midfield charge from ex-rugby league star Lesley Vainikolo had set up the position.

In the process Wilkinson overtook former Argentine great Hugo Porta’s mark of 28 to become the all-time leading drop-goal scorer in Test rugby.

As the game entered the final 15 minutes France were looking increasingly ragged, while England were beginning to butcher the callow French front row.

The hosts managed to cut the gap to six points through a 73rd-minute Yachvili penalty, but the visitors were not to be denied and Wigglesworth scooted over at the death to ensure a second memorable night in Paris for England in the last four months.
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France: Heymans; Rougerie, Marty, Traille, Clerc; Trinh-Duc, Parra; Faure, Szarzewski, Mas, Nallet, Pape, Bonnaire, Dusautoir, Picamoles.
Replacements: Floch for Rougerie (66), Skrela for Trinh-Duc (66), Yachvili for Parra (66), Servat for Szarzewski (59), Poux for Mas (56), Thion for Pape (59), Ouedraogo for Picamoles (77).

England: Balshaw; Sackey, Noon, Flood, Vainikolo; Wilkinson, Wigglesworth; Sheridan, Regan, Vickery, Shaw, Borthwick, Haskell, Lipman, Easter.
Replacements: Tait for Noon (70), Stevens for Sheridan (72), Mears for Regan (50), Kay for Shaw (70), Croft for Haskell (21). Not Used: Hodgson, Cipriani