Yachvili the stand-in stands out and delivers the spoils

On the night the French Rugby World Cup dream sank without trace in the Telstra Stadium last November, Frédéric Michalak added more than a few personal drops to the prevailing sea of precipitation. "I cried a lot that evening," the Toulouse No 10 confessed, recalling the pivotal part he played in the 24-7 semi-final loss suffered by Bernard Laporte's men against Clive Woodward's impermeable All Whites.

On the night the French Rugby World Cup dream sank without trace in the Telstra Stadium last November, Frédéric Michalak added more than a few personal drops to the prevailing sea of precipitation. "I cried a lot that evening," the Toulouse No 10 confessed, recalling the pivotal part he played in the 24-7 semi-final loss suffered by Bernard Laporte's men against Clive Woodward's impermeable All Whites.

It was not the first time the Gallic side had been a wash-out in the wet in an Anglo-French confrontation. A smiliar fate befell Charles d'Albret's boys against King Harry's men at Agincourt in 1415 and Napoleon's Imperial Guard at Waterloo in 1815.

It would have been with some relief, then, that the Messieurs Michalak and Laporte drew back the curtains of their Parisian hotel rooms yesterday to behold cloudless skies. By the time they reached the Stade de France, it was little different. The cumulunimbi were holding off.

The question was whether France could hold off the world champions for a fourth Gallic Grand Chelem in eight seasons. They did it - only just, as it transpired - and with not Michalak but his half-back partner being held up as the unlikely French hero.

Back in November, in the run-up to the World Cup semi-final in Sydney, it was Michalak who was hailed as the man to bring about England's downfall. Instead, to quote his own words, he "lost the plot". The young Frenchman with the diamond-stud earrings and the sparkling potential to match was ground down by the granite Jonny Wilkinson and his merciless left boot.

It helped the French cause last night that Jonny Boy was absent. Olly Barkley had his moments in his role as England's fourth-choice fly-half. Like the rest of his team-mates, though, "Junior Jonny" was never comfortable in the intimidatory confines of the Stade de France. The space-age place was a veritable bear-pit for an Englishman, with the head-shots of Sir Clive and his boys meeting with raucous jeers as they flashed up on the giant screen before kick-off - as though the world champions had become the Millwall of world rugby (no-one liked them, nor much cared for them, it seemed) - and with poor Brian Moore brandishing his passport outside the media entrance in a desperate attempt to gain access ("But I'm with the BBC commentary team," the less-than-happy one-time hooker implored to a bevvy of unimpressed Parisian jobsworths).

The French XV, in contrast, were a team inspired. Their chief source was not Michalak, the model professional who broke from his Six Nations' training a fortnight ago to walk the Parisian catwalk for Christian Lacroix, but the man the England hierarchy had identified, with Robinsonian zeal, as the weakest link. To be fair, the French critics had not exactly seen Dimitri Yachvili as a strong link, his performance as stand-in scrum-half for Jean-Baptiste Elissalde at Murrayfield last week having met with somewhat less than widespread appreciation. He was no rightful heir to the fabulous Fabien Galthié. Or so the popular perception went of the man who spent a season vying with Andy Gomarsall for the No 9 shirt at Gloucester before joining Biarritz.

It was different last night. Right from the kick-off, Yachvili was a man on a mission, switching positions several times with Michalak - who won his first international cap as a scrum-half - before emerging as the key player in the championship decider. The 23-year-old had already landed his first penalty before his first outstanding contribution turned the game, and the championship, France's way. It was his hoisted chip into the right corner that Imanol Harinordoquy plucked from the air for try number one after 23 minutes - the same Imanol Harinordoquy criticised by Lewis Moody last week for standing on the wing, waiting for the ball.

Try number two was all Yachvili's own - an opportunist run and grubber kick down the left with the England defence at sixes, sevens and eights. With a lethal swing of his left boot (minimal back-lift, maximum impact), it was 16 points to Yachvili, 21 to France, only three to England, and not quite game over by half-time but just beyond the retrieving grasp of the world champions, as it proved.

By the final whistle, Yachvili had taken his personal tally to 19 points and earned a place alongside his father in French rugby folklore. Michel Yachvili was a flanker with the first French Grand Slammers back in 1968. Not that either man can claim to be the true hero of the Yachvili family.

Dmitiri's grandfather, Charles, was a native of Georgia who served with the Red Army in Stalingrad. He was captured and forced to serve with the Germany army on the Rhine before escaping to France and settling in Brive. Last night in Paris there was no escape for England from his grandson's Grand Slamming left boot.