England ran in three tries to complete their first grand slam triumph since 2003 with a 31-21 Six Nations victory over arch-rivals France at the Stade de France last night.

The visitors produced a powerful display but were ill-disciplined at times, enabling scrumhalf Maxime Machenaud, who scored all France’s points from penalties, to keep his team in contention throughout.

First-half tries by Danny Care and Dan Cole and one more after the break by Anthony Watson, the rest of the points coming from Owen Farrell’s boot, proved enough to give England the win they craved.

On a crisp evening on the outskirts of Paris, they sealed their 13th all-time clean sweep, two more than next-best Wales, bouncing back in style from last year’s early World Cup exit to hand new Australian coach Eddie Jones a perfect debut campaign.

England, who made sure of winning the tournament for the first time since 2011 with a win over Wales last week, lost Dylan Hartley for the closing stages.

The England captain left the pitch on a stretcher after a clash with France prop Uini Atonio.

Yesterday’s results
Wales vs Italy 67-14; Ireland vs Scotland 35-25; France vs England 21-31.

Final standings
England (5-0-0) 10; Wales (3-1-1) 7; Ireland (2-1-2) 5; Scotland (2-0-3) 4; France (2-0-3) 4; Italy (0-0-5) 0.

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