SUPER Saturday lived up to its billing as England got to within six points of denying Ireland a second successive championship in a helter-skelter game against the mercurial French.

The final three matches of the Six Nations saw an escalating points difference to be overcome as Wales ran riot in Rome scoring 61 points to Italy’s 10.

Ireland eclipsed that as they put Scotland to the sword, racking up 40 points with 10 in reply and setting England a target of having to win by 26 clear points.

The size of the hurdle facing England did not faze the Twickenham faithful as the final match of an eventful championship burst into life with the bullocking English forwards pushing a French scrum backwards and scrum-half Ben Youngs scoring the first try within two minutes.

The 82,000-strong crowd at Twickenham could not take their eyes off the action for a second as the two teams ran in an astonishing 12 tries in a festival of open rugby.

France had the audacity to go off-message and claw their way back into the match as the broken play led to the French scoring two tries and a penalty to take a six-point lead.

At that stage it looked as though English brains were frazzled and Les Bleus would wipe up the scraps.

Captain Chris Robshaw’s men had other ideas and were desperate to not only win the game but also the championship.

Tries from Anthony Watson and a second for the quick-thinking Youngs brought England a half-time lead of 12 points.

A truly epic second half saw the points difference with Ireland narrow as tries were scored at either end.

But the decisive moment in this game came as James Haskell was yellow-carded for tripping Jules Plisson. A brave rearguard action by 14-man England tried to keep France out and Billy Vunipola went over for a try, but the one-man advantage was felt as a driving maul gave France a try.

This was more basketball than rugby union but the end came as England unsuccessfully tried to make-up the final six points they needed in the final seconds with every player joining a driving maul.

His dejected men trooped off as though they had lost rather then put 55 points on France, but coach Stuart Lancaster praised his side and looked optimistically ahead to the autumn’s World Cup tournament.

“We scored 18 tries in the tournament and were without the likes of Joe Launchbury, Owen Farrell, Brad Barritt, Manu Tuilagi and Ben Morgan, who will all come back into the squad,” Lancaster said.

While the final Saturday’s play saw 27 glorious tries it was the defences that ultimately decided the championship, with Ireland conceding just 56 points, while England shipped 100.

World Cups are won by teams that defend well and clinically take their chances when they can. England’s defence and profligacy against Scotland, when they failed to score at least four good chances, cost them dear. They have six months to fix this.

Ireland at last showed they can play an open game but that was against Scotland. Their test will be to marry their parsimonious defence with an attacking edge against the best teams.

Wales beat Italy, but were not convincing against England at home. They do not have a good record against the southern hemisphere greats.

France is, well, France. They could lift the crown or stink the tournament out.

Bring on the Rugby World Cup!