“Ireland’s bench last week were terrific, they were tactically exceptional. Today, we had real impact off the bench. That experience that came on: Jamie George came on and added, Elliot Daly came on and added. Between them I think they rose our caps by 170, increased our average age as a team by almost two years. They brought all that age and experience on to the grass.”

“I thought he played very well. Great composure. I thought that you could see the cohesion factor between him and Alex Mitchell out there today. Tom Willis, also in his first start for England, did really well. That was a real strength I thought.”

“The players have worked consistently to improved. Today, we managed to push the extra pass at the end. I am really pleased for the players to get the win. Everyone wants that tangible reward to show that progress has been made. The atmosphere was exceptional and the Test match in itself was a great spectacle for everybody.

“I’ve been proud of them every game. They keep trying to get better, they keep wanting to be a really good team. They are a delight to coach. It was by no means perfect. We scored four tries against that defence, which is a very, very good defence. France had lots of chances, they made mistakes in the 22. What really struck me today was how hard the England players were running back. And we had to. They ran back and tried to save tries.”

“Incredibly happy with the result,” the England captain says. “I think the team has been working and been consistent throughout this period. The result is a vindication of the hard work. We are happy with the win.

“Steve told the group to be ambitious, he told the group to be brave and go out to try to score tries. Our backs, especially, were incredibly brave and ambitious. They took the ball on when we ordinarily would have taken the conservative option. This game was by no means perfect. Steve will give us an honest review like he always does. We are happy with the win, but we know there are definitely things to improve.”

“I think we just made one too many mistakes, a few too many turnovers and it was a bit wet out there and we dropped too many balls,” the locke

“It didn’t stick for us tonight and the English were better at keeping the possession.

“Our style of play is to kind of let the ball go, a freestyle way of playing, I think we need to be better at bringing it back to the simple things but we will learn from this game.

“We need to get rid of the fancy stuff we force and just let the play happen by itself.

“There are three games left so we will come back stronger.”

It was an incredible match at Twickenham and the England players were deservedly celebrating on the pitch post-match

“England are on the threshold of being a really good team. What they need to do is take the learnings from today and really reinforce how they handle difficult moments in matches. How they get on the front foot again and not go into their shell.

“Keep being aggressive, keep attacking.

“It was evident in the second half, they kept going and going and were rewarded. That really aggressive attacking mindset is the way forward for England.”

“I thought it was an exciting Test match and I’m delighted for the players. It was a special atmosphere at the Allianz stadium.

“You want things to happen instantly. This England team is going to be a very good team, there is a lot of young talent and their potential is so high, but you’ve got to do is keep working hard.

“Today, you saw some things improve, you saw their bravery, courage with the ball – they are a team who want to score tries. We scored four tries against a brilliant France defence and restricted them to three.”

“It was a blur. For large parts of the game we weren’t as accurate as we wanted to be. I will take responsibility for the line-outs not being as accurate as we wanted them to be.

“One thing I love is we’ll fight for each other, and we are going to believe in each other.

“We were brave – that’s the foundation of what we want to be doing going forward.

“I am delighted for this team, for the fans, thanks for staying with us. We are going to build from here.”

“We need to be consistent throughout the game. We need to be accurate and when we have opportunities we need to capitalise on them, but what I love about this team is we are going to fight.

“We want this to be the foundation of us, and thanks so much for the support.”