As Warren Gatland has showed with Wales this season, the best time to change a side is when you are winning. Brian Ashton, the England head coach, who might, in slightly amended circumstances, be where his Wales counterpart now is - unbeaten at the head of the RBS Six Nations Championship - must consider similar steps before England travel to play Scotland at Murrayfield on March 8.

Ashton has been admirably loyal to his players in the past month and, on Saturday night, they rewarded him with the scalp of the hitherto unbeaten France team, a result that leaves Wales as the only country capable of a grand slam in this championship. But Ashton will view with concern the glaring mistakes made by Iain Balshaw at full back that, on other nights, might have led to opposition tries and whether Mark Regan's longevity at hooker is coming to a close.

“If I felt it was the right thing to do to bring other players in, I would do it,” Ashton said after the 24-13 win at the Stade de France. “If I felt someone from outside was worthy of a start, he would come in. But players like Tom Croft have had a taste now, Richard Wigglesworth has started a match, Danny Cipriani has had bits and pieces, several of these guys are starting to get involved with the national set-up.”

Cipriani, the young London Wasps fly half, offers a potential alternative to Balshaw since he played full back for Wasps all last season and Ashton appears to have set his face against Josh Lewsey for that position. Lee Mears worked hard during his half-hour against France and may be worth a start at Murrayfield, despite the value that Ashton places, quite rightly, on what Regan has brought to the squad since his return in South Africa last summer.

James Haskell, who exacerbated an injury to his left ankle received earlier in the season, believes that he will be fit in time to return to the back row against Scotland while Wales will take their glowing record to Dublin on March 8 against a resurgent Ireland, hoping that Dwayne Peel, their scrum half, will have recovered from the blow to the head that forced him off against Italy.

Results: Ireland 16 Italy 11; England 19 Wales 26; Scotland 6 France 27; Wales 30 Scotland 15; France 26 Ireland 21; Italy 19 England 23; Wales 47 Italy 8; Ireland 34 Scotland 13; France 13 England 24.

Fixtures: March 8: Ireland v Wales, (1.15pm); Scotland v England (3.15pm). March 9: France v Italy (3pm). March 15: Italy v Scotland (1pm); England v Ireland, (3pm); Wales v France (5pm).

— If two or more teams are tied on match points at the end of the championship, the winner will be the team with the best points difference; if a tie remains, the winner will be the team scoring the most tries; after that, the title is shared.