Ruthless Ramos seals Six Nations title for France as brave England fall just short

PARIS, March 14 : Thomas Ramos kicked a last-gasp penalty to secure France’s third Six Nations title in five years with a nerve-shredding 48-46 victory over England in a dramatic game at the Stade de France on Saturday.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey shone in a four-try display as Les Bleus finished on 21 points, two ahead of Ireland who beat third-placed Scotland 43-21 as England finished fifth, winning only one game in the Six Nations for the first time.

England played superbly against France, however, scoring tries through Tom Roebuck, Cadan Murley, Ollie Chessum (2), Alex Coles, Tommy Freeman and Marcus Smith.

Saturday's test, which marked the 120th anniversary of "Le Crunch", capped a remarkable championship, during which Italy beat England for the first time and Scotland came into the final day with a chance of winning their first Six Nations.

"This penalty kick is in my top three, and not third," Ramos said after Bielle-Biarrey handed him his man-of-the-match medal.

"I love moments like that. It’s top-class rugby, I don’t even know what the final score was. We may have had a less strong end to the tournament than we would have liked, but we went and got the title — it rewards our very strong start to the championship."

England rose to the occasion, but came up short despite scoring seven tries and more than 40 points on French soil for the first time.

"We had a tough couple of games, and this game I think we were quite disappointed to lose this one," England captain Maro Itoje said.

"But I think we showed the spirit of this team. And I think it's, this is, you know, in sport, you often don't want to learn or go through the experiences that we went through over the last four games. But I truly believe this team's going places."

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