We were competitive in the forwards division but our backs were quite poor. We did not manage to put as many points on the board as we should have done because the forwards won us a lot of ball.

Of course the injuries did not help us.

Our strength is our forwards but the backs made too many mistakes and sometimes they were silly mistakes that cost us dear.

England are still a good side and have many talented players. All they need is more time to play together because when you lose players like Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Leonard and Martin Johnson it will naturally take time to rebuild.

On the Italian side we now need to look forward to our next game but it will be even harder because France are playing for the title.

If we play as we did against the Irish we can still create a surprise but we need to keep going for the full 80 minutes and be as positive as we can.

With our forwards we are nearly there but we just don't have enough strength in depth and there is not enough cover when we have injuries.

The French have such good players and their performance against Ireland was nearly perfect. They put the Irish under real pressure.

Ireland didn't play badly, it's just the French were very good and I expect them to be very motivated in Rome.

Playing at home will help us although it will still be very difficult because France are such a good side. But it's our last chance for a win so we will have to give it our best.

Even if we only have a small chance we must go for it and if we play with aggression and take the game to the French we have a chance. But first we must wait and see whether our injured players will be able to play.