Eddie Jones admits that England have some work to do to catch France after defeat in Paris saw Les Bleus crowned Grand Slam champions.
While Freddie Steward’s second-half try gave England hope at the Stade de France, in the end they came away second best to Les Bleus who ran out 25-13 winners to secure a first clean sweep in 12 years.
Their dominance at the breakdown proved crucial, with Gaël Fickou, François Cros and Antoine Dupont all crossing, the skipper’s try on the hour proving the decisive moment.
And Jones believes that his team can close the gap on France, while being fulsome in his praise for the 2022 champions.
He said: “France are deserved champions of the Six Nations. They have been the best team. We weren’t quite clinical enough and that has been a little of the story of us in the Six Nations. We’ve put ourselves into position to win the three games we lost and not been clinical enough, not been good enough particularly in some of our cleanout work on the ball so that is disappointing. But the spirit we showed will ensure that this team keeps moving in the right direction.
“It’s a great benchmark game for us. We’re not far away but we are far away. And the effort it takes to bridge that gap is important. But we have got a lot of good, young players coming through, we’ve got some of the older guys starting to play some really good rugby again so we’re going to have a good blend going through to the World Cup.”
With six breakdown steals in all, France were able to stifle England’s attack, despite the visitors getting the better of the aerial battle on the night.
And skipper Courtney Lawes admitted that it was particularly frustrating to have been beaten in that area, having highlighted it prior to the game.
He said: “It’s obviously a tough one, we knew they were going to target the breakdown hard. Credit to them, they have got great jacklers across the board and that really showed today. We weren’t good enough in that particular area and it cost us. It’s disappointing, especially considering we knew that was something they were going to target. It’s something we need to learn from but credit to France, they had a game plan and executed it well.”
