Full time3 March 1979
Twickenham, London, England · Five Nations 1979Head-to-head
England won by 1 point.
Scoring
- –PEngland penalty · Nellie Bennett3–0
- –TEngland try · Nellie Bennett7–0
- –CFrance conversion · Jean-Michel Aguirre7–2
- –TFrance try · Frederic Costes7–6
Line-ups
England
- 1Colin SmartProp
- 2Peter WheelerHooker
- 3Gary PearceProp
- 4Bill BeaumontSecond row
- 5Nigel HortonSecond row
- 6Tony NearyFlanker
- 7Mike RafterFlanker
- 8John ScottNumber 8
- 9Peter KingstonScrum-half
- 10Nellie BennettFly-half
- 11Mike SlemenWing
- 12Paul DodgeCentre
- 13Richard CardusCentre
- 14Peter SquiresWing
- 15Alastair HignellFull-back
- 16Tony BondBench
- 17John HortonBench
- 18Malcolm YoungBench
- 19Jon RaphaelBench
- 20John DoubledayBench
- 21Andy RipleyBench
France
- 1Armand VaquerinProp
- 2Alain PacoHooker
- 3Robert PaparembordeProp
- 4Francis HagetSecond row
- 5Alain MaleigSecond row
- 6Jean-Pierre RivesFlanker
- 7Jean-Luc JoinelFlanker
- 8Alain GuilbertNumber 8
- 9Jerome GallionScrum-half
- 10Alain CaussadeFly-half
- 11Frederic CostesWing
- 12Christian BelascainCentre
- 13Roland BertranneCentre
- 14Jean-Francois GourdonWing
- 15Jean-Michel AguirreFull-back
- 16Jean PercheBench
- 17Gerard CholleyBench
- 18Roland PetrissansBench
- 19Yves LaffargeBench
- 20Francois SangalliBench
- 21Roger AguerreBench
Match officials
Sample data- Referee
- Sample Referee
- Assistant referee
- Sample Assistant 1
- Assistant referee
- Sample Assistant 2
- TMO
- Sample TMO
Sample data Match officials is placeholder content: TheBreakdown has no data source for it yet, so nothing here is real.
Context
All-time, England 61–45 France, 7 drawn in 113 scored Tests. Full head-to-head
England going in
France going in
- Previous meeting: 21 January 1978, England 6–15 France
- Next meeting on record: 2 February 1980
Also on this day
Results to 27 September 2026. Scoring and line-ups come from World Rugby match summaries where available; older Tests may have neither.