Wilkinson kicks England to the final

By DAVID LEGGAT

SYDNEY - The giant scoreboard at the final whistle should have read Jonny Wilkinson 24, France 7.

That statistic tells the outline of the second semifinal at a rain-lashed Telstra Stadium last night.

The subtext is that the French simply failed to handle conditions more suited to Twickenham on a dark January afternoon.

In contrast, England knew the requirements and carried out their plan perfectly.

It was not pretty, it did not need to be, and they will play Australia in the fifth cup final at the same ground on Saturday night.

France will face New Zealand in the third-fourth playoff two nights earlier.

The leaden skies which had blanketed Sydney for most of the day brought the inevitable showers an hour before the start, then returned in time for kickoff and rendered redundant French hopes of using a backs-oriented game.

Still, the French had marginally the better of the early stanza.

The forward exchanges were brutal and there was a simmering tension in the tight exchanges and early scrums, with French hardman, loosehead prop Jean-Jacques Crenca, invariably adjacent to the trouble.

France's pin-up boy, first five-eighth Frederic Michalak, had an inauspicious start, bungling his first kick in open play. Nerves affected his game and whatever control he hoped to exert, fell apart.

His opposite, Jonny Wilkinson, grew in stature as the game progressed. By the end he had kicked three drop-goals and five penalties.

It was master against pupil, and master had all the answers.

Wilkinson put England in front when he propped to his right and drop-kicked his first goal of the game.

But France responded promptly. From a lineout just inside the England 22, the ball reached flanker Serge Betsen near the back.

He bolted through a big hole in the English line and, with Jason Robinson clinging on to his leg, just made it to the line.

Television official Andrew Cole could have written the rulebook in the time he took to make his decision, but he got it right.

Michalak converted and in a game when chances would always be at a premium, could have increased the lead after 15 minutes when Lawrence Dallaglio was penalised for obstruction.

He missed and shortly after France were in deep trouble when left-wing Christophe Dominici was yellow-carded for a deliberate foot trip on Robinson.

Wilkinson closed the gap with a penalty when a retreating French player picked the ball up in an offside position.

Down to 14 men, France almost bagged a second try when, from a Tony Marsh grubber-kick ahead, Aurelien Rougerie was just beaten to the touch by his opposite winger, Ben Cohen.

Just before the break Wilkinson put England in front with a 42-metre penalty, then took the margin to five points with his second dropped goal right on the halftime whistle.

The signs were starting to emerge that England, having got their noses in front, would be desperately hard to catch.

France caught an early break when Wilkinson missed two kickable shots early in the second spell, but when Betsen was yellow-carded for a marginally late tackle on Wilkinson, it was third time lucky for England's No 10.

He quickly followed with his third dropped goal after the pack had rumbled to the French 22, with openside Neil Back, who got through a power of work, prominent.

The French discipline, which had been so impressive to date, started to crumble and Wilkinson was the man to make them pay, with another two penalties.

That was enough for French coach Bernard Laporte, who pulled off the hugely disappointing Michalak.

Fresh legs were added to the forward pack, but with Swing Low Sweet Chariot reverberating round the crowd, England just tightened their grip.

This was not a night for the backs, but you had to admire Wilkinson's steel nerve when it was really needed.

He rarely put the ball through the backline's hands and he could not be blamed for that. On an increasingly foul night it was not an occasion for razzle-dazzle rugby - even if England did have the armoury for that.

If it's analogies you like, the rain could not have come at a less opportune time for France. It played into England's hands and they grasped the chance with relish.