Maro Itoje’s England were denied right at the death in Paris (Image: Getty)
Maro Itoje’s team put some pride back in the England shirt but were denied an upset by French full-back Thomas Ramos – again. Tommy Freeman thought he had earned the freedom of Dublin with a late try which would have handed the Six Nations title to Ireland.
Ramos, who scored with the last kick of the game to beat England 33-31 two years ago, repeated the dose, with a penalty at the death, and France are champions again. England were 45-39 down on a bonkers night in the French capital and had sucked up four tries from French wing wonder Louis Bielle-Biarrey before Ramos’ killer blow.
Where England dredged this performance up from is anyone’s guess, but with their backs to the wall after a dismal five weeks, they finally learned how to play rugby.
They were up 27-24 at the break as they went blow-for-blow with the French and revealed that somewhere, somewhere deep inside there, there is a proper rugby team ready to break out.
Ollie Chessum hit his straps after his promotion from the bench, Jamie George was heroic as usual and England even managed to string a few attacks together. Where was all that at Murrayfield, Twickenham and in Rome? And that is the most frustrating thing.
All the chat since the travelling circus went from Rome, and a humiliating 23-18 defeat to the Italians, has been about showing some pride in the shirt.
England flew out of the blocks in this Six Nations, burying Wales 48-7, then went downhill faster than Matt Weston on his skeleton in the Winter Olympics.
Post the thrashing of Wales, a 48-7 drubbing at Twickenham on February 7, England have looked like a team that doesn’t know the name of the bloke next to them.
But they have continued to stick square pegs in round holes, like the football team did in the old days of Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes. And they have continued to fail to deliver in the last six weeks that have seen them slump from third in the world to sixth.
Thomas Ramos was the hero for France in Paris (Image: Getty)
Discipline, line out, defence, attack and decision-making have all gone to pot. Apart from everything has been great. And their defence was exposed after just six minutes when French full-back Thomas Ramos poked the ball through for the brilliant wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey to score for the 10th Six Nations game on the spin.
England hit back when Tom Roebuck went over after a big Chessum carry and quick thinking from Ben Spencer but then Bielle-Biarrey did it again.
Talk about falling for the same trick. England’s defence was flat. This time, French 10 Mathieu Jalibert nudged the kick forward, and again Bielle-Biarrey finished off.
England in the last three rounds would not have even made it back to their ringside stool, but somehow they started throwing some more punches.
Wing Cadan Murley got his fingertips to a Ben Spencer kick through, and Chessum barged over from short range, and in the blink of an eye, it was 17-17, and the tournament favourites were on the ropes. Then Chessum made a score for Alex Coles before Ellis Genge got binned for a neck roll.
Borthwick was going nuts in the coaching area at the Genge decision and, with England a man down, Bielle-Biarrey, who else, grabbed his third.
Chessum delivered one of the moments of the night when he galloped home from halfway to make it 38-32 but it was a night when England showed they could play the game – finally. Even if it ended in agony.
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