France captain Guilhem Guirado gears up for England onslaught

COACH Eddie Jones blamed himself for England’s stuttering start to their Six Nations Grand Slam defence. The highly anticipated encounter which will surely go along way to determine the overall victor of the championship it was the English who came out on top.

Although the score was level 9-9 at half-time after Camille Lopez had traded penalties with Owen Farrell (2) and Elliot Daly, the vibrant visitors were clearly the more inventive and risky side.

England’s scrum won a penalty early in the second half but Farrell’s effort came back off the post.

Flanker Kevin Gourdan burst to within sniffing distance of the line and fed the supporting replacement prop Rabah Slimani to power over for the first try, Lopez converting.

Jones took over before the 2016 Six Nations and guided his side through the tournament undefeated.

England trailed 16-12 with less than 10 minutes to play at Twickenham until former Leinster favourite Te’o bashed through the French cover for the decisive score.

It was far from flawless but England’s celebrations and the Twickenham roar on the final whistle demonstrated the meaning of this 15 straight Test win – a record for an England team.

The game then started to open up with France’s South Africa-born fullback Scott Spedding launching wing Noa Nakaitaci, like Vakatawa originally from Fiji, down the right only for England scrumhalf Ben Youngs to counter-attack on the break. Injuries have had a strong influence on Eddie Jones’ selections but such is the strength in depth in English rugby the head coach was still able to name a formidable XV. England and Jones could be without George Kruis, who suffered a knee injury in training, while fellow lock Maro Itoje is set to start a Test in the back row for the first time, covering for Chris Robshaw, says the BBC.

Read on as we provide all the essential viewing information ahead of Saturday’s Six Nations showcase, complete with a preview of the defending champions’ first competitive outing of 2017.

Picamoles has played 58 times for France since making his worldwide debut against Ireland in 2008, but almost a decade later and a few pounds lighter, and the bustling backrower is playing some of the best rugby of his career.

“It doesn’t get much uglier than that”, said the coach, who during the week had called for his side to be “daring”.

A losing bonus point and man of the match honours for number eight Louis Picamoles were scant consolation for France, who have won only one Six Nations game at Twickenham in 20 years.

England were far from their best yesterday and sorely missed the explosive ball-carrying of Billy Vunipola but this hard-fought victory keeps this side’s title defence on track ahead of a seismic clash with Wales in Cardiff next Saturday.

It was a marked change from the dominance shown in 2016, perhaps a sign of how important those injured absentees up front are to this England team. “We want to hit the ground running”.

“There is huge expectation on our team but nobody puts us under more pressure than ourselves as individuals and a team”, he added.

Pick players with the potential to score tries.