England's team of 007s spy chance to get far more than a quantum of solace according to Simon Barnes in The Times.
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England celebrate scoring one of their five tries against France at Twickenham
© Getty Images
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"For months, nothing they did worked. Everything they touched turned to filth and corruption. Bad things led to bad things with the most devastating inevitability. But yesterday, in a match that was not so much extraordinary as unbelievable, England beat France 34-10 and ran in five tries.
"They looked unrecognisable, but they were the same guys, more or less: the same key personnel, the same manager. All that changed was the cycle of depression. All they did was break the pattern, the one in which error led to error, folly led to folly, calamity led to calamity.
"Perhaps this has been a half-decent team all along, just one that happened to be playing badly. Perhaps it was just that things got on top of them, that the penalties they conceded could lead only to more penalties, that the yellow cards they received could lead only to more yellow cards, that one woeful performance made the next woeful performance inevitable."
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