How I love being wrong (England 26 - France 18)

I thought we were going to get thumped, even at half time when we were only three points down and playing the better rugby I thought we were going to get thumped. France couldn't play as bad as that in the second half and at some point England would shoot themselves in the foot. But we didn't.

Key difference between today and the game in Dublin? The forwards fronted up. The scrum creaked a bit, but Nick Easter managed to control it pretty well at the base. The lineout went well, they drove forwards in groups and protected the ball well.

And Catty? well he did a job and created one try, and stood well in defence. But my star was Toby Flood. Stepping into Jonny Wilkinson's boots he kicked well from hand and the tee, generally made good decisions (including dealing with a couple of hospital passes from Harry Ellis) and his offloads out of the tackle gives him a dimension that not many flyhalves have.

This gives us a good base to build on moving forwards through the welsh game and into the summer tour to South Africa, which will tell us a lot more about just where this English team is at.