England must learn to live with being tagged favourites says George Ford

It took a sudden-death penalty by Owen Farrell in the second-half of extra-time to defeat a France side containing a mere 68 caps and who were only 29 seconds away from registering a famous against-the-odds victory.

England added the Autumn Nations Cup to the Six Nations title they won in October and have pieced together a winning run numbering eight Tests, their only defeat of 2020 inflicted in Paris at the start of the year.

But mirroring the World Cup final 12 months ago when they were expected to topple South Africa only to crumble on the day, the favourites tag once again proved to be a heavy burden in front of 2,000 noisy fans at Twickenham.

“That’s actually something we speak quite a lot about as a team,” said George, as he reflected on the need to improve when England are predicted to win.

“We have some specific meetings where the players speak – and we had a very open and honest conversation about exactly that.

“We felt like we have more to give when we go in as favourites against the underdogs.

“Actually, we probably didn’t do that against France, but again it’s a great learning for us going forwards. The more we win, the more we will be favourites going into games and we need to work it out.

“One thing I’m really confident about is that we’ve got the right people in place and the team is going in the right direction.”

Eddie Jones insisted that a year ago England would have crumbled under the pressure in the same circumstances, a belief born out of his side’s habit of imploding when in front.

On this occasion, a diving maul scored by Luke Cowan-Dickie inside the final minute that was converted by Farrell averted the imminent danger of an embarrassing defeat. The champions then seized control of a one-sided period of extra-time.

“We had a lot more control when things weren’t going our way. Twelve months ago when things weren’t going our way we probably got a little bit rattled,” said George.

“As a leadership group we probably didn’t use to handle things as well as we could, whereas against France it felt like the leaders did a great job in making sure everyone stayed calm and in control and trusted in the process.

“France were exceptional but we dug in and showed some resilience to get over the line.”

England launch their Six Nations defence in two months’ time when Scotland visit Twickenham on February 6.