TheBreakdown
Full time21 March 1981
England
12–16
France
Twickenham, London, England · Five Nations 1981Head-to-head

France won by 4 points.

Scoring

  1. –PEngland penalty · Marcus Rose3–0
  2. –PEngland penalty · Marcus Rose6–0
  3. –PEngland penalty · Marcus Rose9–0
  4. –PEngland penalty · Marcus Rose12–0
  5. –CFrance conversion · Guy Laporte12–2
  6. –TFrance try · Laurent Pardo12–6
  7. –TFrance try · Pierre Lacans12–10
  8. –DFrance drop goal · Guy Laporte12–13
  9. –DFrance drop goal · Guy Laporte12–16

Line-ups

England

  1. 1Colin SmartProp
  2. 2Peter WheelerHooker
  3. 3Phil BlakewayProp
  4. 4Bill BeaumontSecond row
  5. 5Maurice ColcloughSecond row
  6. 6Nick JeavonsFlanker
  7. 7David CookeFlanker
  8. 8John ScottNumber 8
  9. 9Stephen SmithScrum-half
  10. 10Huw DaviesFly-half
  11. 11Mike SlemenWing
  12. 12Paul DodgeCentre
  13. 13Clive WoodwardCentre
  14. 14John CarletonWing
  15. 15Marcus RoseFull-back
  16. 16Dusty HareBench
  17. 17Nick PrestonBench
  18. 18Nick YoungsBench
  19. 19Steve MillsBench
  20. 20Paul RendallBench
  21. 21Bob HesfordBench

France

  1. 1Pierre DospitalProp
  2. 2Philippe DintransHooker
  3. 3Robert PaparembordeProp
  4. 4Daniel RevallierSecond row
  5. 5Jean-Francois ImbernonSecond row
  6. 6Jean-Pierre RivesFlanker
  7. 7Pierre LacansFlanker
  8. 8Jean-Luc JoinelNumber 8
  9. 9Pierre BerbizierScrum-half
  10. 10Guy LaporteFly-half
  11. 11Laurent PardoWing
  12. 12Didier CodorniouCentre
  13. 13Roland BertranneCentre
  14. 14Serge BlancoWing
  15. 15Serge GabernetFull-back
  16. 16Dominique SagarzazuBench
  17. 17Jean-Paul WolfBench
  18. 18Roland PetrissansBench
  19. 19Jerome GallionBench
  20. 20Patrick MesnyBench
  21. 21Alain CaussadeBench

Match officials

Sample data
Referee
Sample Referee
Assistant referee
Sample Assistant 1
Assistant referee
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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

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.