England's young team plundered three tries and held off a furious French fight-back to seal a dramatic 24-22 Six Nations victory in Paris Sunday. England stunned its host with early tries by Manu Tuilagi and Ben Foden to lead 14-9 at halftime and France got to within two points before flanker Tom Croft ripped through the French defense for the decisive score. France center Wesley Fofana crossed in the corner with five minutes left to set up a grandstand finish but England held on to secure its third away win of the tournament and condemn the World Cup runner-up to its first defeat. Stuart Lancaster's inexperienced England still has a slim chance of retaining the championship if it beats Ireland at Twickenham next weekend and France overcome leader Wales in Cardiff. France was kept afloat by the kicking of Julien Dupuy, Lionel Beauxis and Morgan Parra before Fofana's late try. France manager Philippe Saint-Andre had changed his scrumhalf and flyhalf with Dupuy and Beauxis taking over from Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc in a bid to strengthen their kicking game. The host had its first chance when Dylan Hartley was penalized for standing up in the scrum but Dupuy's penalty attempt went just wide. England took full advantage of a pass by Dimitri Szarzewski that was intercepted by flyhalf Owen Farrell who found Tuilagi and the powerful center sprinted 50 meters to cross in the right corner. Beauxis reduced the arrears with a 45-meter penalty but the relief was short-lived as England won the ball from the restart and No. 8 Ben Morgan burst through the defense and offloaded to Foden who had the pace to reach the line. Farrell missed a routine penalty that would have put the visitors 17-3 in front. Instead, France narrowed the gap to eight points when Dupuy converted a penalty awarded by referee Alain Rolland. Amazingly, France was only five points down at halftime after another Beauxis penalty awarded against England for diving into the ruck. Farrell restored an eight-point advantage with a 30-meter penalty after a Fofana knock-on was harshly ruled intentional 10 minutes into the second half. Fofana's try gave France hope and it went close to snatching victory when Trinh-Duc's attempted drop goal fell short.
