Jack van Poortvliet: England 'have a lot to fix' but Paris is the 'blueprint'

Jack van Poortvliet insists England must build on the attacking foundations laid against France in Paris amid regret that it took until the final round of the Guinness Six Nations for them to be uncovered.

England came alive on Saturday night after escaping the straightjacket that had held them back in the Championship, outscoring their rivals on the try count 7-6 by showing intent and ambition with the ball in hand.

It was not enough to prevent a fourth consecutive defeat and they still face fundamental questions over the alarming collapse lasting from rounds two to four, but van Poortvliet insists the path ahead was lit at the Stade de France.

“The way we attacked is our blueprint. That’s what we have to take forward,” the scrum-half said.

“The boost and the confidence it gives when you’re really going at a team like that, challenging them with speed of ball, it puts a great feeling into the team. That’s something we’ll look to build on.

“The style and the way we attacked really gave us energy. We’ve attacked well in parts in the tournament, but probably because we haven’t finished our chances, it’s taken it away from us a bit.

“We know we have a lot to fix. We’ll get to the bottom of why we had some of the performances we did, but we can take a lot forward from that performance against France.

“Particularly Scotland and Ireland, our performances weren’t there. We know in this tournament that if you don’t perform, you get punished.

“The frustration is that we have performances in us like we showed against France. For whatever reason, particularly against Scotland and Ireland, we couldn’t deliver that. Why can’t we do that more often?

“We’ll take huge lessons from it. The adversity will help us going into the rest of the year and next year.

“The boys put everything on the line. I felt the performance was there, we just couldn’t land it.”

France’s remarkable 48-46 victory was not without controversy with Steve Borthwick uncharacteristiaclly criticical of the officials for awarding a penalty try and yellow card against Ellis Genge for collapsing a maul.

And Borthwick, England’s head coach, will also seek clarification from World Rugby after his team pressed a second-half attack in the belief they had penalty advantage only for that decision to be overturned by the TMO.

England then turned the ball over and France pounced through Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s fourth try in the 66th minute.

“When you’ve got a penalty advantage, you get a free shot almost. I shouted it out loud: ‘pen advantage’. We were under the impression we could chance our arm,” van Poortvliet said.

“And then there’s the confusion of why we didn’t get it. You’re in a confused state, and then they boot it in behind and you’re trying to stop a try.”