Fin Baxter has urged England to use their dramatic "marquee win" over France in the Six Nations as a springboard to future success rather than have it become a glorious one-off triumph.
England upset the odds in stunning style by beating France 26-25 at Twickenham on Saturday, a victory that ended a worrying run of seven straight defeats by top-tier opponents.
But in a match where the lead changed hands three times in the last 10 minutes, England at last prevailed in a tight contest, following several agonising losses, when replacement Elliot Daly's 79th-minute try was converted by Fin Smith, who impressed in his first test start at fly-half.
Fin Baxter’s first try for England 🙌🌹#ENGvFRA | #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/B3bJBVhW4T
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 8, 2025
By that stage Harlequins prop Baxter had also come off the bench to power over for the third of England's four tries as they revived their Six Nations campaign after an opening 27-22 loss to champions Ireland.
Defeat in Dublin did see England gain a losing bonus point, however, and they can now look forward to their next championship clash, against oldest rivals Scotland at Twickenham on February 22, with fresh confidence.
"That roar at the end was incredible," said Baxter of the reaction of a capacity home crowd of over 81 000 following a much-needed win for Steve Borthwick's men. "I'm going to remember that for a very long time."
🗣️ “We’ve been practising that all week.”
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 9, 2025
Watch Fin Baxter reflect on his first-ever England try, as he joins Ollie Sleightholme and Alex Mitchell on the O2 Inside Line Live 🌹 #GuinnessM6N | @O2 | #WearTheRose
The 23-year-old added: "This is a marquee win and a win that we're going to look back on for a very long time, but we're not parking up after that.
"We're going for the rest of them and that's what we've been going with since I've been part of this team."
A key feature of Saturday's victory was the impact made by England's bench, with Baxter, Daly, former captain Jamie George, Ollie Chessum and Ben Curry all making telling contributions.
Their efforts were in marked contrast to England's narrow losses to the likes of New Zealand and Australia, where the Red Rose replacements failed to make their presence felt.
"The bench goes on every time trying to make a positive impact, trying to bring energy and a lift. Against France we did that and we brought that lift," said Baxter, who also marked his eighth cap with a valuable scrum penalty.
FRANCE 'WAY BELOW STANDARD'
France, fresh from a 43-0 rout of Wales, saw their Six Nations title hopes suffer a setback after they squandered several try-scoring opportunities, with even captain and star scrum-half Antoine Dupont among those knocking on in sight of England's line at a rainswept Twickenham.
France dominated territory and possession in the opening 40 minutes only for England to go into halftime level at 7-7.
It was all a far cry from the corresponding Twickenham edition of 'Le Crunch' two years ago when a rampant France won 53-10 – England's heaviest home defeat.
"We had a lot of opportunities to score in the 10 minutes before the break but our execution was poor. Passes went to ground, not to hand, and it wasn't what we expect from ourselves," said France flanker Francois Cros.
"The last quarter wasn't good for us. We failed to finish in the way we wanted and England kept putting pressure back on to us," he added.
"We missed too many opportunities to score, to win a game and that is down to our control and accuracy.
"England had five visits, I think, in our 22, and they scored four tries. That's not good for us and it's way below the standards we expect."
With their hopes of a Grand Slam now over, France will look to revive their title hopes away to Italy on February 23.