England captain Maro Itoje insists the best is yet to come from his side with last-gasp Six Nations victory over France ‘vindication of hard work’

England skipper Maro Itoje insisted the best is yet to come after leading his team to a dramatic, late victory over France.

A last-minute conversion from Fin Smith secured England’s first victory over tier one opponents for almost a year and eased the pressure on boss Steve Borthwick.

England capitalised on mistakes in a blundering French performance as Antoine Dupont’s winning run finally came to an end. 

‘The result is a vindication of the hard work of the players, the coaches and the support staff,’ said Itoje. ‘We’re happy with the win. For large parts we were not as accurate as we wanted to be. One thing I love about this team is that we are going to fight for each other and believe in each other.

‘I thought we were brave and ballsy and that is the foundation of what we want to be going forward. Imagine how good we can be when we add that layer of accuracy on top of this fight. It wasn’t easy against a very talented French team. Steve told the group to be ambitious. He told the group to be brave and go out and score tries.

‘There’s a whole load we can get better at. This game was by no means perfect. We’re happy with the win, but we know there’s definitely things to get better.’

England captain Maro Itoje says the best is yet to come from his side after beating France

Elliot Daly’s last-gasp try and Fin Smith’s conversion secured a memorable comeback win

Smith cleaned up the extras in the final seconds to ease the pressure on boss Steve Borthwick

Elliot Daly scored the winning try in the final minute as England’s experienced bench delivered. Borthwick said: ‘I’m delighted for the players to get the win. I’m very proud of them. They’re a delight to coach and I’m very happy to get the win.

‘What struck me was how hard the players were running back to try and save tries. That is a real sign of a team developing.

‘I thought Fin played very well. Great composure. You could see the cohesion between him and Alex Mitchell. You could also see the way Ben Earl and Tom Willis played together. Ben Curry ran so hard. 

‘That experience, the way Jamie George and Daly came on and added to it. The two off them raised our caps by about 170. They brought all of that experience onto the grass.

‘I was really pleased, just watching the composure at the end. It’s a team that’s growing. 

Uncharacteristic handling errors proved costly for France as their Grand Slam bid was derailed

‘The point of difference in this team is going to be the way they move the ball in attack and they’ve got to keep believing in themselves. We’d all like the team to suddenly be perfect, but that’s not the way teams build.

‘The ceiling of this team is very high, but unfortunately you take some pain along the way.’

The result derailed France’s Grand Slam bid, leaving Scotland and Ireland as the only unbeaten teams. 

France defence coach Shaun Edwards said: ‘Every time we got near the line we seemed to drop the ball.’