ENGLAND'S coach Jack Rowell will hardly have lost much sleep over the first win by France at Twickenham in 10 years.

The French ultimately outplayed England with their own polished brand of inter-active rugby, but this stunning set-back had nothing to do with England's technical preparation, which was first rate, instead, it came down to a dramatic change of tactics on the hoof, as well as French heart and stamina in an astonishing final half hour.

Rowell has much to ponder now that the RFU want to make the job of coach full-time, but his fresh vision of England's national style is already an established fact of life. The task is to persuade the players to give it substance for the full 80 minutes.

Before half-time, Phil de Glanville's men played some of the most sublime rugby ever seen at Twickenham, but they simply had no answer to a French renaissance that overhauled England's 20-6 lead and produced 17 points without reply.

The Triple Crown is still available to England when they play Wales in Cardiff in 12 days' time, but it is bound to feel more like a hollow crown after the most dramatic turnaround seen in the Five Nations Championship during the 1990s.

In the past 21 months, France have defeated England three times in succession, underlining their status as the third-best side in the 1995 Wood Cup - a position achieved at England's expense.

"The players are in shock after that result," said Rowell. "It's a game of mental and physical stamina and we ran out of it. They knew that even in the first half we turned a lot of ball over and in the second half, we didn't get to the areas we should have. Still, we nave to take all things in our stride and put them right.

Ironically, England had been criticised beforehand for not having moved into top gear until the final quarter of their victories over the Scots and the Irish.

This time round, key players such as Tim Rodber, Phil de Glanville, Martin Johnson and Tim Stimpson shot out of the starting traps like thoroughbreds, only to fade into anonymity later on because they had no ball to play with.

The French coaches, Jean Claude Skrela and Pierre Villepreux, must take credit for the relentless determination of their backs and forwards to keep the ball in hand when they still had a 14-point deficit to make up. The Brive centre, Christophe Lamaison, who scored a try, two conversions, two penalty goals and a dropped goal, was also a seminal influence on France's transformation from a side reacting to events, into one that dictated the pattern of play.

Certainly France should be too strong for Scotland when they attempt to clinch the Grand Slam at the Parc des Princes in 12 days time.

Remarkably, the loss of their captain, Abdel Benazzi, with a rib injury midway through the second half, did not hinder the momentum of a remarkably-cohesive pack that cruised through successive phases with a cold passion. The substitutes, Richard Castel and Marc de Rougemont, added extra bite to the French challenge.

"I thought we would have problems when Benazzi went off," admitted Villepreux. "However, it is a capacity of French players to be able to play in different positions and even though we brought on a hooker (de Rougemont) at flanker, he still played very well.

"It was a very emotional game and we had a tough time in defence to start with. But we had great heart and scored two very good tries when it mattered."

A statistical analysis shows how tightly poised the game was, even though the balance of power eventually swung France's way with a vengeance.

Andy Gomarsall, the England scrum half, made 40 passes and his counterpart Philippe Carbonneau 39; England won 41 per cent of loose ball, France 45 per cent and England were awarded 17 penalties to France's 16. Even at the set pieces, England only shaded France, 42 per cent to 39 per cent

Predictably, kowell was asked why he used no substitutes to shore up a disintegrating rearguard which was at fault on both of the French tries. The England coach pointed out, reasonably enough, that had a voluntary substitution been quickly followed by an injury-induced change in personnel, England could well have been terminally undermined.

No-one could deny that the abrasive, physical nature of the contest made injury a genuine possibility. In any case, England had reason to believe that the same 15 players who carved out a 20-6 lead would be up to the task of quelling a spirited French fight-back.

"You tend to start thinking that a score like that will allow you to win the game," admitted de Glanville. "But after the break, we weren't at the top of our came physically and perhaps the mental aspect wasn't quite right either.

We tried to drive the ball on a number of occasions and at other times, we had little option other than to kick. Unfortunately we weren't chasing those kicks and their full back, Jean-Luc Sadourny, was very good at running the ball back which was bad for our confidence and good for theirs.

In the opening 50 minutes, though, it was mostly one-way traffic as Paul Grayson coolly kicked four penalty goals and a 25-metre dropped goal which signalled England's growing authority.

Even when Dallaglio's 40th-minute try at the end of a 30-metre run was answered on the hour by a lightning strike by Laurent Leflamand, who left Tony Underwood for dead, England still seemed to have sufficient power and organisation to hold out.

However, 11 minutes from time, the versatile Christophe Lamaison rumbled the English defence once again with a brilliant 15-metre break, drifting inside two would-be tacklers to make the touchdown. It required only a penalty goal by Lamaison from the edge of the box to complete France's demolition job. At the end, England sank to their knees and the French set off on a merited lap of triumph.