Saint-Denis (AFP)

Imperfect happiness.

The XV of France, despite its convincing success in front of Ireland (35-27) on Saturday, could not prevent England from winning the 2020 Six Nations Tournament, interrupted by the pandemic.

The English largely dominated Italy (34-5) in Rome a little earlier in the day and offered themselves a sufficiently comfortable mattress in the distant duel that opposed them to the Blues and the Greens.

The great victory of the French (18 points, +28), with four tries to the key, is insufficient to deprive England (18 points, +44) of its 39th coronation in the Tournament, all periods combined.

But the Blues won a second place carrying hope, their best result since the 2011 Tournament, the last of the Lièvremont era.

They even climb to 4th place in the World Rugby world ranking, overtaking their opponents of the day.

For his first at the head of the France team, Fabien Galthié does better than his predecessors Jean-Claude Skrela (3rd in 1996), Bernard Laporte (2nd in 2000), Marc Lièvremont (3rd in 2008), Philippe Saint-André (4th in 2012), Guy Novès (5th in 2016) or Jacques Brunel (4th in 2018).

He does as well as Pierre Berbizier in 1992.

At the time, Galthié, a young scrum half from Colomiers, had started three of the four matches in the Five Nations Tournament.

- Super Dupont -

Almost nine months after the start of the 2020 Tournament, launched by an XXL performance in front of ... the English (24-17), the French therefore ended with a victory, their fourth of this special edition, truncated and marked by a French flair found.

A single defeat, in Scotland (28-17), comes to shower blue dreams.

It looks like a misstep after the demonstration against the English, the lesson inflicted on the Italians (35-22) and the founding event in Cardiff (27-23).

In this 273-day long competition, there were successful bets, such as the back Anthony Bouthier (28 years old, 6 caps) or the Swiss army knife Gaël Fickou (26 years old, 57 caps), captain of the defense in the center and wing duty firefighter.

There are confirmations, like the second line 100% "Springboks" formed by Bernard Le Roux (31 years old, 43 caps) and Paul Willemse (27 years old, 11 caps).

Or the blaster Virimi Vakatawa (28 years old, 26 caps).

But there is also, and above all, the bursting into broad daylight of the hinge Antoine Dupont (23 years old, 26 caps) and Romain Ntamack (21 years old, 18 caps).

A dazzling Toulouse duo that amazes as much as it worries the world of rugby.

And what about the smash captain Charles Ollivon?

Toulon's third row did not score against the Irish, but that did not prevent him from finishing as the Tournament's leading test scorer, tied with his compatriot Ntamack.

- The last crusade -

Better, for the first time since 1995, the XV of France aligned the same twelve holders on six matches in a row.

With this stable framework, the Blues of Fabien Galthié seduce again by showing audacity, talent and solidarity.

The brand of champions?

The indiscipline once again caused a lot of worries for the Blues (seven penalties in the first period against Ireland).

Just like the air balloons, often badly negotiated.

And, if the yellow card from Bouthier (9th) did not prevent France from winning on Saturday, Galthié and his staff know that he still has work to do.

Especially since the Autumn Nations Cup, the new eight-way competition that starts in 15 days, will force the French management to review their plans and recompose their starting XV under the agreement between the FFR and the LNR which limits three-way match sheets for internationals.

We will therefore have to wait a little longer to see the Blues lift their first trophy since 2010.

The English have recovered well from their inaugural defeat at the Stade de France to win.

Scotland (13-6), Ireland (24-12), Wales (33-30 and Italy therefore have broken their teeth on the cold pragmatism of Eddie Jones' men.

Almost a year after their defeat in the final of the World Cup-2019 in Japan, against South Africa (32-12), Owen Farrell's teammates won their first Tournament since 2017. Efficient, for lack of be brilliant.

© 2020 AFP