Rugby: France beat England to claim long-awaited Six Nations Grand Slam

Fabien Galthie's side showed their brilliance in an exhilarating opening half, although some poor passing and handling kept England in the game until the hour.

Les Bleus prevailed through tries by Gael Fickou, Francois Cros and Antoine Dupont with the rest of the points coming from Melvyn Jaminet's boot to finish the championship on 25 points, four ahead of Ireland a year before France host the World Cup.

England answered with a try by Freddie Steward and kicks from Marcus Smith, but were too limited to be a credible threat as they ended up third on 10 points and three defeats.

"Fair play to England, they tried to break our defence but our play and tactics won us the game," said France general manager Raphael Ibanez.

"We need to keep our feet on the ground and there is more to come. We can still improve."

England captain Courtney Lawes believes his team could have earned a better result.

"We're pretty disappointed, we had them in fitness but we failed to capitalise but that's on us," he said. "I thought there were points where we had them but it wasn't to be, we didn't deliver."

England looked to unsettle the French with nagging kicks behind the defence but fullback Jaminet stayed alert.

France's set moves did not go through at first as knock ons by Anthony Jelonch, Gael Fickou and Romain Ntamack delayed the inevitable.

After 15 minutes, however, Cameron Woki drew several defenders as Les Bleus piled on the pressure near the line, leaving Fickou unmarked on the right wing.

Ntamack found him with a long pass and Fickou touched down to put Les Bleus 8-0 up. England reduced the arrears right away through Smith's penalty.

Jaminet restored France's eight-point lead with a routine penalty before one of Smith's many high kicks