England survive France scare to keep their unbeaten streak going

England 19 - 16 France, Twickenham Stadium
Scorecard

Replacement Ben Te'o scored the decisive try for England in the closing stages as they started their Six Nations title defence with a scratchy 19-16 win over France at Twickenham on Saturday.

The result also means England have stretched their winning streak to 15 games now following a successful 2016 under head coach Eddie Jones.

The first 10 minutes saw France number 10 Camille Lopez and Owen Farrell exchange penalties, even though the Les Bleus looked more threatening. Jones' men suffered early setback when Jonny May was sin-binned in the 12th minute for tipping Gael Fickou following which Lopez scored two more penalties stretching France's lead to six points.

Even though, Farrell replied back with his second penalty, Jones was concerned by England's loss of control at line-outs.

Scott Spedding, for the second time in the game looked threatening when he breached England defence and offloaded to Noa Nakaitaci but a combination of Elliot Daly and Ben Youngs countered it well.

At a stroke of half-time, Daly kicked the third penalty for England as the scores were levelled 9-9.

With all to play for, the second half resumed and a combination of George Ford and Farrell created a chance for Daly but the Wasps wing just had a foot in touch as he was touching down and the score was correctly ruled out.

England took the lead for the first time with a penalty kick from Farrell in the 54th minute but France responded back with number eight Louis Picamoles at the forefront of the attack before offloading from Sebastien Vahaamahina and Kevin Gourdon sent Slimani over.

France were leading by four points when the final quarter started and it looked like England's unbeaten streak might come to an end on Saturday but Te'o delighted the Twickenham crowd with his touchdown in the 70th minute which was followed by a conversion from Farrell as the red rose team won by a slender margin of three points.