So nearly

At last a performance from England to be proud of sadly too late in the championship and also against clearly the best team in the championship by a mile this year and so we still didn't win - although we had two clear chances to bury them. Still if Ashton had taken the chance on the wing would the French been happy with the forward clashes in the later part of the 2nd half... I doubt so I still think we'd have lost.

Now Brian Moore can go on a bit on the commentary side but I was completely with him yesterday the standard of refereeing was utter rubbish - esp at the scrum. I don't deny that England were under pressure all day even after the changes but free kicks for not touching when he said which was then still ignored by both sides again... and he was helping correct the bindings at time? Sorry given the three times I noticed him do it it was a French arm how come we never got an England penalty for illegal bindings. Enough of that moaning but I do hope the IRB look long and hard - there are some excellent international refs out there and some who aren't they need to raise their game.

I hope now we can build on the team we saw in Paris as for once it was a good performance. I don't get taking Tindall off as every time he got the ball he was making ground and had nullified Bastareaud's threat. I'd have left him on longer personally. Given after Tait came on I can't recall anything he did I think emphasises my point - sorry Mathew but that's how I saw the game.

So now - next year ... 6 nations again it would be good to see England challenging for the triple crown, the championship or a grand slam (tricky if the French continue as this year). World Cup - hmm now that is a different proposition do any of the northern sides stand a chance against the quality of the southern hemisphere teams?