Damian Penaud has won the Guinness Six Nations Try of Round 4 for finishing off France’s brilliant team move during their narrow defeat to England at Twickenham.
Les Blues may have had their Grand Slam ambitions crushed on Saturday but Fabien Galthie’s men provided another reminder of why they are one of the most exciting attacking teams in world rugby.
Starting with a lineout just outside the England 22, France executed a perfect training ground routine as hooker Julien Marchand threw long to the onrushing Gael Fickou, who offloaded to Antoine Dupont on the wraparound.
From there the ball went to Matthieu Jalibert and the No.10 ran a superb line to suck in two England defenders before floating a perfect pass to Penaud out wide, who finished a brilliant move in the corner.
It was a try to light up any Guinness Six Nations and is deservedly named as Try of the Round following a fan vote.
The effort received 35% of the public votes, just pipping Huw Jones’ scything score during Scotland’s defeat to Ireland, which garnered 30.5%.
Penaud’s teammate Antoine Dupont came in third (19.5%) for his try after just 80 seconds, while Anthony Watson’s finish against Les Bleus in the corner earned 14.7%.
Their shot at the Grand Slam may have gone but France can still win the 2021 Guinness Six Nations title if they beat Wales on Super Saturday and Scotland in their rearranged Round 3 game, along with some other conditions that we ran through in our permutations piece.
Guinness Six Nations Try of Round 4 vote result Damian Penaud (England v FRANCE): 35% Huw Jones (Scotland v IRELAND): 30.5% Antoine Dupont (England v FRANCE): 19.5% Anthony Watson (ENGLAND v France): 14.7%
