France eye title after thrashing awful England

France put themselves in pole position to win the Six Nations title with a record-equalling 31-6 victory over an inept England at the Stade de France yesterday.

France and Ireland, who beat Scotland 15-9 on Saturday, have six points from four games. Such is France's points advantage, however, that victory in Wales next Saturday will give them the title even if Ireland beat England at Twickenham.

On this performance the Irish have every chance as the world champions failed to perform in almost every area of the game.

France were nowhere near their best, yet still matched their record margin of victory over England, a 37-12 win in 1972.

England captain Martin Corry had no excuses. "The first 20 minutes - shocking," he said. "We just never really recovered. There were a lot of mistakes, we've tried to play and we've played poorly."

"I'm very proud to have beaten them, we knew that we could still win the Six Nations and now we have one more match," France's Christophe Dominici told the BBC.

France were in control from the moment Florian Fritz scored a try after 41 seconds. After scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili punished England's errors with penalties they finished off with tries by centre Damien Traille and wing Dominici.

Next Saturday's matches

Italy vs Scotland - 14:30
Wales vs France - 16:30
England vs Ireland - 18:30