Eddie Jones is confident England will turn World Cup misery into Six Nations success against France in Paris next weekend after victory over Wales secured a second triple crown in three seasons.
England achieved a measure of revenge over their World Cup conquerors by defeating them 25-21 at Twickenham but were hanging on at the end after the prop Dan Cole received a yellow card and Wales scored two quick tries.
Manu Tuilagi sealed victory by tackling George North into touch after coming off the bench for his first Test appearance in 20 months, and England have the opportunity at the Stade de France of a first grand slam since 2003, the year they won the World Cup by defeating Jones’s Australia in the Sydney final.
“We can talk about the grand slam now,” said Jones. “It is there for us to take. France will be at home and will play with a lot of passion and pride, but if we prepare well and play well we are good enough to do the business.
“We played some fantastic rugby for the first 60 minutes against Wales and looked sharp and incisive. I do not know what happened after that. I made a number of replacements to test players and change the team and maybe that didn’t work.
“We stopped attacking them and tried to protect the lead, but if someone had said five months ago that we would be 25-7 up against Wales after an hour, we would have been very happy. It is just about making better decisions in the last 20 minutes and it was nothing to do with fitness.”
The second-row Maro Itoje was named the man of the match after an all-action performance; he was involved in England’s try, sabotaged Wales’s line-out and won a number of turnovers. He was not in the squad at the start of the tournament with Jones, while saying the 21-year old needed time, comparing him to a Vauxhall Viva.
Itoje was called up as injury cover and Jones is not inclined to drop him. “He’s a BMW now,” said the head coach. “He played very well and, with George Kruis, could be locking our scrum for a long time to come.”
The defeat left Wales, who face Italy at the Principality Stadium on Saturday, playing for second place. “I am very disappointed with the way we played in the first half,” Warren Gatland said. “We lacked energy and enthusiasm. It was really poor and very unlike us.
“It was different in the second half, but only the players can say why they were so lethargic before then having trained well all week. It was not acceptable even if we played some pretty good rugby after that and scored three tries. England were outstanding and deserved to win.”
The Wales and Exeter prop Tomas Francis faces being cited this week after being penalised nine minutes from the end for putting his hand on the face and near the eyes of the England tight-head Dan Cole.
The Wales captain, Sam Warburton, who was taken off the field on a stretcher having suffered a head injury, will follow return-to-play protocols..
