This was a wonderful victory for England, and one that puts them firmly back in contention for the RBS Six Nations title. Here, at last, we saw an England team that had reinvested in its natural power up front and given the game and the ball back to the likes of Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery, allowing them to make space and to drive France on to the back foot. The win was wonderfully well-deserved and was sealed right at the very end when England’s pack simply battered and battered around the fringes till there were no more Frenchmen left, and Richard Wigglesworth crossed wide out.

It was all a tribute to England’s shape and tenacity. It will revive them, and the gargantuan front five, the lively back row and Tom Croft, who made a striking appearance as a replacement, were all contributors. Wigglesworth played brightly and if England’s back play was nothing more than adequate, then who will care unduly? Winning is everything, they won, and how much better life will feel for them this morning.

It was also a wonderful thing for rugby. Here, stripped bare, was the insult to rugby’s traditions, the insult to the competition and the insult to England inherent in the approach of Marc Lièvremont. I have made no secret of the fact that I’m deeply suspicious of his policy of choosing young men ludicrously ill-equipped for rugby of this standard and of the fanciful rubbish that is spoken about building for the future. He has been in the post one season and has already chucked away a Grand Slam.

He chose players in all three rows of his scrum yesterday, and in both half-back positions, who were quite desperately inadequate and who mixed a few fluffy moments with an awful lot of pap. By the time Lièvremont had brought on some real players it was all too late. The home team spent the evening trying to exist without a base, without having done any of the spadework, and for a rugby nation of this magnitude they were embarrassing.

England can now take great heart, can motor on to Edinburgh, and then to meet Ireland at Twickenham, knowing that the pressure is off and they have done their duty. The French do not have those comforts.

We were confronted with the silly exuberance of France right from the kick-off, when François Trinh-Duc and Morgan Parra, who would not make a decent weight between them, tried to beast the ball up into the teeth of the England rush defence. It was the kind of cloud cuckoo land that France tended to inhabit.

Trinh-Duc was in the same land when he compounded a poor French ball way behind the advantage line with his own indecision and bad pass. This put Cédric Heymans under pressure and a splendid hit by Jamie Noon dislodged the ball. It went loose, Paul Sackey kicked it on and scored. Noon had blatantly knocked the ball on in the tackle, and the touch judge really should have spotted it. Jonny Wilkinson’s conversion gave England a handy 7-0 lead and that became 10-0 after Lionel Nallet handled the ball in a ruck.

At this stage, France were playing helter-skelter stuff, with the odd dangerous moment. Too often, they merely shunted the ball wide and found that their wide men were tackled rather lamely into touch.

Yet there was always going to be the odd flash from the youngsters. England’s lineout had already been unconvincing and when the remarkable Thierry Dusautoir won a French lineout after 24 minutes, Trinh-Duc made a determined burst. When the ball came back, Parra held on to the ball cleverly to put Julien Bonnaire through the gap, then the electric Dimitri Szarzewski arrived to add more momentum. France gathered themselves for the driving maul and, with remarkable ease, they drove Nallet over for the try, Damien Traille converting.

Just before the half-hour mark, Wilkinson put England 13-7 ahead with a penalty from out near the left touchline and overall it had been a relatively impressive half from England, taking advantage of their own improved purpose and power, and also of French selection errors.

France had all the territory at the start of the second half, although they lacked the muscle and application up front to really do anything to sap the England defence. However, they did start to create chances, notably when Traille burst powerfully through the middle and a Frenchman following through on his shoulder would definitely have scored – had there been one.

However, France were given a penalty within kickable range in this same move, ushering in a short period of bonkers behaviour by the two hookers. After the penalty was awarded, Mark Regan was lying on top of a small heap of players and showing little inclination of moving. So as the penalty preparations were starting, Szarzewski came racing up, smashed Regan off the pile and the penalty was reversed.

But only a few minutes later, Regan conceded a penalty almost exactly where France had lost theirs. He started throwing punches at the back of a ruck, preposterous since he had looked up to check that the referee was watching. Parra kicked the goal to make it 13-10. Clearly, coach Brian Ashton was not amused, hauling Regan off immediately and replacing him with Lee Mears.

The general demeanour was not helped when Wilkinson missed from a perfectly reasonable range for him, at a time when a successful kick would have wounded some of the new French momentum. The only good news was that a good deal of that French momentum was sloppy and sideways.

However, Wilkinson and England were soon feeling a lot brighter. Although some of their forward authority was waning slightly, they still had France on the back foot, especially through Andrew Sheridan and the scrum.

Then, staggeringly, England finally brought Lesley Vainikolo up the middle – it had only taken them two and three-quarter games to think of it. Vainikolo did little more than subside into a tackle but England had removed some defenders and Wilkinson had time to drop an excellent goal.

And soon afterwards, with less than 14 minutes remaining and after yet another penalty awarded against the French scrum, Wilkinson kicked a splendid goal from around 50 metres out, putting England ahead by a handy 19-10.

French incoherence grew as their caps-for-the-boys policy reigned and, although Dimitri Yachvili did kick them to within a score with a penalty after an England offence at the back of a ruck, it was the visitors who were still ahead and who finished with a flourish as Wigglesworth went over.

France: C Heymans (Toulouse); A Rougerie (A Floch (both Clermont) 66min), D Marty (Perpignan), D Traille (Biarritz), V Clerc (Toulouse); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier, D Skrela (Stade Français) 66min), M Parra (Bourgoin, D Yachvili (Biarritz) 66min); L Faure (Sale), D Szarzewski (Stade Français, W Servat (Toulouse) 59min), N Mas (Perpignan, J-B Poux (Toulouse) 55min), L Nallet (Castres, capt), P Papé (Stade Français, J Thion (Biarritz) 59min), J Bonnaire (Clermont), L Picamoles (F Ouedraogo (both Montpellier) 77min), T Dusautoir (Toulouse).

England: I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (M Tait 70min), T Flood (all Newcastle), L Vainikolo (Gloucester); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), R Wigglesworth; A Sheridan (both Sale, M Stevens (Bath) 72min), M Regan (Bristol, L Mears (Bath) 50min), P Vickery (capt), S Shaw (both Wasps, B Kay (Leicester) 69min), S Borthwick (Bath), J Haskell (Wasps, T Croft (Leicester) 21min), N Easter (Harlequins), M Lipman (Bath).