Woodward watches the game unfold. (Getty Images)

By PA Sport staff

Sir Clive Woodward saluted new RBS 6 Nations champions France after his team failed in their title quest.

England have now gone from winning the World Cup to finishing third in the Six Nations in just four months but they could have few complaints as France completed a richly deserved Grand Slam.

England fought back superbly from 18 points adrift midway through the second half, but tries from wings Ben Cohen and Josh Lewsey proved not quite enough as France triumphed 24-21.

"You either win or lose in sport, and we are obviously disappointed, but well done to France they deserved to win the Grand Slam," said head coach Woodward.

"I am extremely proud of the team for they way they came back in the second half, and in the end it was pretty even, but we are not used to losing.

"For us, it has been a disappointing tournament, but we have brought in a few new faces and I thought that Olly Barkley again acquitted himself well.

"We made too many errors in the first half.

"You can take the positives, but we lost, and it doesn't matter whether it is by a point or 20 points," Woodward added.

"We turned over too much ball and gave away too many penalties. At times, we lacked a bit of discipline.

"League tables don't lie. We have lost two out of five in this Championship and we can't change that.

"We have got to coach, play and manage our way out of it, and we can really regroup now for the summer tour of New Zealand and Australia."

England never really recovered from a dismal first half display when France stormed into a 21-3 lead through tries from scrum half Dimitri Yachvili, who finished with 19 points, and number eight Imanol Harinordoquy.

And their cause was not helped when lock Danny Grewcock departed injured midway through then opening period.

"Danny suffered a blow to the lower part of his back. It created problems for him running and it got worse, so we had to bring him off," said England coach Andy Robinson.

Matt Dawson, despite the disappointment of defeat, felt England side had proved a point in the second half.

"It was disappointing and a little bit strange as we made made silly errors in the first half," he said.

"A lot of critics out there thought we were going to get whipped by 50 points but we dug deep.

"It was a little bit too late in the second half but we have to tip our hats to the French."

Both Ben Cohen and Olly Barkley admitted the first half had cost England the chance of victory.

"We had a few words to say at half-time after a lot of mistakes in the first half and in the second half we went out there and took it to them," Cohen told BBC1.

"We did nearly sneak it. If a few more decisions had gone our way or [we had made] fewer mistakes - that is was what cost us."

Fly-half Barkley added: "The first half cost us massively as the turnovers we conceded never allowed us to get into the game and after 20 minutes we were chasing the game."