Not since 2005, have France won at Twickenham in the Six Nations. That sounds silly, right? That’s 18 years.

Okay, there was a Rugby World Cup warm-up win for France there, in 2007. But it’s been a long wait for les Bleus beating England in the great championship.

To give you a bit of context, the first ever video uploaded to YouTube was in 2005. Million Dollar Baby won the Oscar. Blink 182 broke up. Saddam Hussein went to trial. The Eurovision Song Contest was held in Kyiv, Ukraine (Greece won). The first human face transplant took place.

And Dimitri Yachvili scored 18 points at Twickenham. France won 18-17.

This was evidently a long time ago. So here are the match details, for those who have forgotten – or weren’t alive then!

The last France win at Twickenham

France hadn’t won at Twickenham since 1997, but they turned up in London in 2005 in tenacious mood.

Despite England leading through two converted tries (with Olly Barkley and Josh Lewsey the scorers) they could not see out the win from 17-6 ahead at half-time.

Yachvili, the French scrum-half, had his eye in and knocked over six penalties. Meanwhile, Charlie Hodgson and that man Barkley missed six penalties between them.

Hodgson still had the chance to grab victory for the hosts late on, but his drop-goal attempt went wide.

Yachvili’s haul of 18 points beat the old best for points scored by a French player in the Six Nations, which was Gérald Merceron’s 14 points in 2001. However, that record fell in 2016, when Maxime Machenaud nailed seven penalties for 21 points against England (they lost 21-31 at home).

But enough about points totals – do you think we’ll see France win at Twickenham in 2023?

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