The final game of the opening weekend of this years 6 Nations saw England take on France.

England have gone back to the drawing board after their world cup final defeat to South Africa in November.

Eddie Jones selected a very different looking England team, although there where some familiar faces on the pitch there where also a number of key players missing and a number of largely inexperienced players. It was going to be a tough game to manage and get right.

France have gone though a long spell of underachieving in the 6 Nations and this has not been good for the French rugby public. The French management has again changed with a new Head Coach in Fabien Galthie and Defence Coach Shaun Edwards running the show it was safe to say that fans where going to see more structure in both attack and defence.

The game started as many people predicted, both team being very physical in defence and attack, both teams battling early on for game line dominance.

France played a good kicking game early on turning the English defence and making them work out of the 22 or having to kick back to the dangerous back 3 of the French.

England where forced into making a number of errors that gave the French good field position which they where able to capitalise on by scoring the first try of the game.

This try gave the French the upper hand early on and they went on to dominate the game for the rest of the half. Scoring another break away try and with Ntamack brilliant off the tee the french stormed into a 17-0 lead going into half time.

England looked dangerous at times with ball in hand but with the French clearly benefiting from the defensive coaching of Shaun Edwards England were unable to register a point in the first half for the first time since 1988.

The second half started in similar fashion, with France in complete control for early parts of the second half more pressure on the English attack caused England to make mistakes and give up possession in key try scoring moments of the game, then with France scoring another well worked try midway though the half it was starting to look very bleak for the English.

That would of been for a brilliant moment of magic from Jonny May, chipping the ball over the top and winning the foot race to touch the ball down over the line for England's first try.

This did not do much to improve the English performance as the French where so good in defence England could not find a way though, it was again another bit of brilliance from Jonny May which got England back on score board, but it was not enough, England where beaten well by a brilliant French performance.

So in review of the game England played well in parts but where unable to get a foot hold in the game at any time, the defence looked weak and loose at times and the French where able to find a lot of space to exploit.

The line out for both teams was not good enough and there where far to many loose balls and poor execution of this part of the game.

A plus sign for England was the scrum was very controlled and England where able to force a number of penalty's from this area of the game. although they where unable to capitalise on this and turn it into points.

The French need to improve the scrum area and do more to get equal parity in this area if they want to give the full performance they will need for the rest of the competition.

Overall it was a physical game that was won by a great defence, The French defence was well structured and physical, forcing the English to play the game behind the line and pushing them back and back until a turn over was won.

It will be interesting to see how France play against the Welsh with both teams using the Shaun Edwards style of Defence.

As for England it was less then a convincing performance, Eddie Jones needs to look a some selections and positions of key players. Tom Curry i believe needs to be moved back to the flank and bring in a out and out number 8.

With Tuilagi leaving the field early England need to look at finding the a new way of playing without the physical go forward players in the back line.

England welcome Scotland next week, with both teams having lost their opening game it is going to be a tough match with both teams looking to improve and get a much needed win.

France play a weak looking Italian side with a lot of points to prove to a lot of people. The game is in Italy so it could test the French away from home but off the back of the dominate performance against England it is hard to see any other result than a French win.

Off the back of all this weekends Performances i would now say that the French are going to be the new favourites for the title and even the grand slam.