Glory for Ireland as England fall just short in dramatic finale

ByEurosport

Updated 21/03/2015 at 21:11 GMT

England's hopes of a first Six nations title since 2011 were rocked in a five-minute spell in the first half when France scored two tries by Sebastien Tillous-Bord and Noa Nakaitaci to turn a 7-3 deficit into a 15-7 lead after Ben Youngs had crossed for a try after two minutes.

England hit back with a try for Anthony Watson and a second for Youngs to lead 27-15 at halftime and the tries continued to flow after the restart as Maxime Mermoz and George Ford each crossed under the posts.

Jack Nowell and Billy Vunipola scored for England, with Vincent Debate and Benjamin Kaiser replying before Nowell's second took England within a converted try of the title five minutes from time.

The game reached a deafening crescendo as England pounded the line seeking a margin of victory they had managed only once in a century of championship play but France held out.

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That left England second in the standings for the fourth year in a row and France fourth, in the bottom half of the table for the fourth successive season.

"I'm gutted really," England coach Lancaster told BBC One after the game.

"I said to the boys that's one of the most courageous performance I've seen from a team.

England (Reuters)

Image credit: Eurosport

"To go down like we did and show the character to come back. It was an unbelievable game of rugby and it was desperately disappointing not to get that try at the end.

"We played some fantastic rugby and those two first tries from France hurt us but it will go down as one of the great games of rugby.

"Credit to Ireland for winning the championship, they beat us and congratulations to Joe (Schmidt) and all his team."

Scrum-half Ben Youngs was named man-of-the-match after scoring two of England's seven tries.

Ben Youngs (Reuters)

Image credit: Eurosport

"We really gave it a crack but for all the hard work and endeavour we showed you can't let them back in game," Youngs said.

"We started really well and positively but we gave away a couple of loose tries.

"We knew the French would tire as we saw that in previous games, but we gave ourselves too much to do in the end."

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