England continued to experiment as they made 10 changes from the side that convincingly beat Wales last weekend.

In an era of England mangers and coaches habitually spinning their sides' losses, it was refreshing to see Brian Ashton's honest assessment, as reported in Sporting Life:

"You play in a game like that and work incredibly hard to put yourself into a position to win it by opening up three or four opportunities in the second half and you blow every one of them.

"You don't win big games against good sides playing like that. You don't win World Cups playing like that, either.

"It was a very angry dressing room, I hope the messages of today will be taken on board very quickly and not repeated next week."

England: Abendanon (Bath), Sackey (Wasps), Noon (Newcastle), Catt (London Irish, capt) Lewsey (Wasps), Barkley (Bath), Perry (Bristol); Sheridan (Sale), Regan (Bristol), Stevens (Bath), Shaw (Wasps), Kay (Leicester), Haskell (Wasps), Worsley (Wasps) Dallaglio (Wasps) Subs: Mears (Bath), Vickery (Wasps), Corry (Leicester), Borthwick (Bath), Gomarsall (Harlequins), Wilkinson (Newcastle), Cipriani (Wasps)