Pelous hails best ever

By Matt Majendie
BBC Sport in Paris

Report: France 24-21 England Laporte delighted with win

French captain Fabien Pelous hailed Saturday's Grand Slam victory as the most satisfying of the four in his career to date.

Pelous already had Grand Slam wins under his belt from the 1997, 1998 and 2002 campaigns ahead of a fresh clean sweep this season.

"They're all different," he said, "but this seems the most satisfying because of the consistent way that we played.

"I have a very special feeling to be part of such a great squad."

Pelous, however, dismissed claims it was more special to beat the world champions en route to topping the Six Nations standings.

"Nothing's changed," said Pelous. "England are still the world champions. You can never take that away from them.

"We, though, have taken over the leadership in Europe."

We had some serious fear when Josh Lewsey scored Fabien Pelous

France dominated the first half, cruising to a 21-3 half-time lead after tries by Dmitri Yachvili and Imanol Harinordoquy.

The ease with which they had taken an 18-point lead stunned much of the 80,000 strong crowd.

But Pelous insisted he was "not surprised".

"We wanted to put pressure on this team that was doubting itself after the Ireland defeat," said the French captain. "And we did that with devastating results."

The game, though, turned around in the second half as England came alive and moved within three points of France's lead following scores from Ben Cohen and later Josh Lewsey.

"We had some serious fear when Josh Lewsey scored," admitted Pelous.

"Their team is very physical and we saw that in the way they came back in the second half.

"But this French team is talented - they don't give up. They keep playing well until the end and we deserved to win."