England led 24-15 thanks to flanker Tom Croft’s try with only a few minutes remaining, but France suddenly remembered how to play attacking rugby for Wesley Fofana to score in the right corner to give the hosts some hope of an improbable win.
Burly center Manu Tuilagi and fullback Ben Foden scored first-half tries to put England in control against an error-prone French team.
“In terms of the performance, I’m delighted. It’s not easy to come here and win. The players deserve great credit. It really epitomizes the character in the side,” England interim coach Stuart Lancaster said. “Great credit to the French as well, they never gave up. They got back in a position where they could have dropped the ball to win the game.”
England can retain its title if it convincingly beats Ireland next weekend at Twickenham and France thrashes Wales in Cardiff.
“You control the controllables, you can’t control the other results,” Lancaster said. “But what we can do is really focus on playing an Irish side we have a huge amount of respect for. We’re playing at home, playing at Twickenham and we’ll have our supporters behind us.”
The win boosts Lancaster’s chances of getting the England job fulltime.
“It’s not about me, it’s about the team,” Lancaster said. “We lacked experience in terms of numbers of caps, but we had a lot of belief.”
France coach Philippe Saint-Andre had a game-plan to kick deep to push the English back, replacing experienced halves Morgan Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc with scrumhalf Julien Dupuy and flyhalf Lionel Beauxis.
But England’s first two tries stemmed from inaccurate kicks, and France looked more dangerous when running the ball rather than playing a territorial game. When Parra and Trinh-Duc came on in the second half, they immediately electrified France’s attacking game.
Dupuy dropped a pass and missed a penalty early on as France started nervously but its scrum was dominant, and the hosts twice almost crossed the line when flanker Julien Bonnaire and then Fofana burrowed forward.
Against the run of play, England took the lead when Tuilagi found space, skipped past fullback Clement Poitrenaud to charge up the right wing and evade Aurelien Rougerie’s desperate tackle.
Ireland winger Tommy Bowe scored a try from a similar position last week in exposing France on its left flank, with Rougerie caught out of position.
France reduced the deficit when Beauxis nailed a kick from the right, his first of three in the game.
But weak French tackling let England in for another converted score when Bonnaire failed to bring down No. 8 Ben Morgan, who crashed through another tackle near the line before passing to Foden right near the line for an easy converted try.
The crowd was silenced, apart from the pockets of raucous England fans enjoying the fast-paced start, with the visitors’ handling skills and running with the ball catching the French by surprise.
France could have fallen further behind but Poitrenaud beat Charlie Sharples to a grubber kick into the left corner. Flyhalf Owen Farrell, who converted all three tries, then let the French off when he hit the post with a routine penalty.
Dupuy and Beauxis kicked penalties thanks to English indiscipline to make it 14-9 at the interval.
England took the physical challenge to France, with No. 8 Imanol Harinordoquy and lock Pascal Pape dazed after big hits and winger Vincent Clerc going off shortly before the interval with his left arm in a sling.
Farrell’s penalty made it 17-9 10 soon after halftime after Fofana had knocked on, and Saint-Andre made changes. Parra came on for Dupuy, veteran hooker William Servat replaced Dimitri Szarzewski and prop Jean-Baptiste Poux made way for Vincent Debaty.
France was given another chance to recover when Sharples was contentiously sinbinned in the 53rd minute for a deliberate knock on.
Fofana should have set up Parra for an easy try, but went for glory instead and was told off by captain Thierry Dusautoir.
France could not make the most of the extra man, even losing a lineout against the throw, but as soon as Fofana received the ball there was danger for England.
Saint-Andre’s changes proved effective and France closed the gap. Parra slotted over a kick and Beauxis landed a huge penalty from just behind the halfway line to make it 17-15 and set up a tense last 10 minutes.
But the hard work was undone when Croft found a big gap and brushed aside Rougerie, Harinordoquy and Poitrenaud on the line to score.
France hit back with Parra setting up Fofana in the right corner. Fofana has scored a try in every match of the competition.
France powered forward and Trinh-Duc’s drop goal attempt dipped under the bar.
