England discovered something of substance at the Stade de France on Saturday night. The side who have been roundly slated for underachievement away from home in the RBS Six Nations Championship for four years burst the bubble of Marc Lièvremont's reshaped France team and gave themselves the chance - no more than that - of contesting the title.

More to the point, their selfconfidence, which was severely shaken by the manner in which they lost at home to Wales and then struggled to overcome Italy, will have soared. Phil Vickery, the captain, was right to give warning about not getting carried away by one result, but he knows better than anyone the worth of victories in France and the exposure of players such as Richard Wigglesworth, Michael Lipman and Tom Croft to such a fervent atmosphere.

He knows, too, the value of the manner in which victory was achieved. This was far from a one-dimensional display, but at its heart was a strong, aggressive defence and a destructive scrum reminiscent of that which damaged Australia so badly in last year's World Cup quarter-finals. If the lineout went awry three times in the first half, it is a technical problem that can be mended, but England need these basic principles if their game is to flourish.

That England have yet to discover a cutting edge to their back play remains a problem, but the more they move the ball around, the better they will become. The interchange at first receiver of Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood is a sign of growing maturity in the younger man, the variety that Wigglesworth brought to his play at scrum half was important and Lesley Vainikolo was given opportunities that passed him by in Rome.

The points at which France proved strong in beating Scotland and Ireland, the electricity of their back three and the support play of their back row, were quelled, in part by giving Cédric Heymans and his colleagues as little as possible to work with, but also by the aggression of England's tackling.

It is impossible to overstate the value of Jamie Noon's well-timed destruction of Heymans as early as the fifth minute, even if the cameras showed that the ball shot behind Heymans off Noon's forearm. Not only did it create the try for Paul Sackey, the wing kicking on and beating François Trinh-Duc to the touchdown, it also created uncertainty in the minds of France's back three. Heymans recovered his equilibrium, but his combination with Vincent Clerc and Aurélien Rougerie was less spontaneous.

The other portent arrived early. At the first scrum, Steve Walsh penalised Nicolas Mas for slipping his binding. Mas was penalised again at the second scrum and when Nick Easter compounded the felony by stealing a lineout, England set the ruck from which Wilkinson kicked his first penalty goal and gave England a 10-0 lead.

“I thought Steve Walsh was outstanding,” Vickery said, and England have not always been so complimentary about the New Zealand official. “He made it simple and straightforward for the players to understand what he wanted and at scrum time, when the French will always be difficult, he saw through the fog and rewarded us for what was a pretty disciplined performance in the set-piece.”

The premature loss of yet another flanker (Lewis Moody and Tom Rees were injured against Wales) did not affect England so much this time. James Haskell limped off with a damaged left ankle midway through the first half, which gave Croft his debut, and Trinh-Duc took the chance to make a couple of breaks, one of which led to France's try, Lionel Nallet, keeping low at a ruck, driving over to put his side back in contention.

The absence of a regular goalkicker had already hurt France. Damien Traille missed his first penalty attempt and, though he converted Nallet's try, he hit a post with a second after Wilkinson had landed his second goal. Wilkinson's misses in the second half showed that even record-holders are not infallible, but France desperately needed the security of points and Traille could not help them.

A poor start to the second half was a reminder of what had happened in England's previous two games. Morgan Parra, revealing another string to his bow, kicked a close-range goal, but England weathered the storm and though Wilkinson was adrift with two penalty attempts, both from more than 40metres, good organisation by the forwards created the position from which he dropped his 29th and world-record goal. That he promptly landed a penalty from the best part of 50 metres showed the ice in his veins and if Dimitri Yachvili, replacing Parra, recovered three points, England's finish was all they could have wished for.

France had to force the game by running from their own 22, David Skrela - under no particular pressure - knocked on and from the scrum, England must have driven for the line ten times (and run down the clock in the process) before Wigglesworth finally stretched over for the try that made victory safe.

Scorers: France: Try: Nallet (26min). Conversion: Traille. Penalty goals: Parra (49), Yachvili (74). England: Tries: Sackey (5), Wigglesworth (79). Conversion: Wilkinson. Penalty goals: Wilkinson 3 (14, 29, 67). Dropped goal: Wilkinson (64).

Scoring sequence (France first): 0-7, 0-10, 7-10, 7-13 (half-time), 10-13, 10-16, 10-19, 13-19, 13-24.

France: C Heymans (Toulouse); A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne; rep: A Floch, Clermont Auvergne, 66), D Marty (Perpignan), D Traille (Biarritz), V Clerc (Toulouse); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier; rep: D Skrela, Stade Français, 66), M Parra (Bourgoin; rep: D Yachvili, Biarritz, 66); L Faure (Sale Sharks), D Szarzewski (Stade Français; rep: W Servat, Toulouse, 58), N Mas (Perpignan; rep: J-B Poux, Toulouse, 56), P Papé (Stade Français; rep: J Thion, Biarritz, 58), L Nallet (Castres, captain), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), T Dusautoir (Toulouse), L Picamoles (Montpellier; rep: F Ouedraogo, Montpellier, 76).

England: I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (London Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle Falcons; rep: M Tait, Newcastle Falcons, 70), T Flood (Newcastle Falcons), L Vainikolo (Gloucester); J Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks; rep: M Stevens, Bath, 72), M Regan (Bristol; rep: L Mears, Bath, 49), P Vickery (London Wasps, captain), S Shaw (London Wasps; rep: B Kay, Leicester, 69), S Borthwick (Bath), J Haskell (London Wasps; rep: T Croft, Leicester, 21), M Lipman (Bath), N Easter (Harlequins).

Referee: S Walsh (New Zealand).

Attendance: 80,000.