Elliot Daly insists England can continue their push for the Guinness Six Nations title emboldened by a victory over France that rewarded their refusal to be beaten.
Daly's final-minute try, combined with Fin Smith’s conversion, sealed a dramatic 26-25 triumph at Twickenham Stadium that has given England lift-off after they opened the tournament with defeat in Dublin.
Head coach Steve Borthwick had urged his players to keep aiming to score tries when the pressure is on and they responded with Fin Baxter and Daly going over in a final 10 minutes that saw the lead change hands three times.
England have been unable to close out winning positions for most of the last year, losing seven successive matches against top-tier opposition in the process.
Daly believes that getting over the line against France serves as validation of who they are as a team.
"You want to go and win every single game and obviously we have been on the wrong side of results in the last couple of games. Now we know we are a good team," Daly said.
"We knew we were a good team before but you need to win those big games to prove you are a good team.
"Sometimes you have to go through those games where you don’t get the rub of the green. You have games of rugby like that, especially at Test level.
"Against France, whatever happened, it was like – pardon my French – 'f*** that, on to the next thing’.
"That mindset we showed will put us in great stead, especially in the last 20 minutes when we were chasing it and scored, and then chased it again. It allowed us to be free and brave with the ball.
"But there are still things to work on, which is brilliant. If you have the perfect game it’s very hard to go to next week and say, ‘we’ll just do the same thing again’ as there’s
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