Stuart Lancaster hailed his England team as they fell agonisingly short of claiming their first Six Nations title in four years on an extraordinary , record-breaking day . After big wins by Wales and Ireland , England knew they needed to beat France by 26 points at Twickenham to win the Championship . They ran in seven tries in a brilliant display of attacking rugby to beat France 55-35 but paid the price for a leaky defence — and wasting six try opportunities last week against Scotland . Stuart Lancaster ( centre left ) praised his England side 's courage but admitted he was 'gutted ' to lose out . Lancaster looks dejected alongside his players at the end of the exciting RBS Six Nations match . Wales beat Italy 61-20 in Rome , but saw their efforts then dashed by Ireland 's 40-10 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield . Stuart Hogg went over the line in the last few minutes but the try was disallowed — costing Lancaster 's men the chance of a title . England scrum-half Ben Youngs , who scored two tries , said : ' I do n't really know what to say . I am absolutely devastated . 'We really gave it a crack but for all the hard work we showed , you can not let them back in the game and we are just gutted . We knew that the French would tire but we just gave ourselves too much to climb in the end . ' Man-of-the-match Ben Youngs scored two tries for England but it was n't enough to claim the title . England were defensively weak and made too many individual mistakes over the 80 minutes . Lancaster added : 'We are gutted . It was one of the most courageous performances I have seen from a team . 'But it is desperately disappointing not to get that try at the end . Their first two tries hurt us and to come back as we did before half-time and then to concede the first try of the second half — it will go down as one of the great games of rugby . 'To go down like we did and show the character to come back . It was an unbelievable game of rugby and it was desperately disappointing not to get that try at the end . 'Credit to Ireland for winning the championship , they beat us and congratulations to Joe ( Schmidt ) and all his team . '
England needed just six more points against France to win the Six Nations . Ireland claimed the title after beating Scotland 40-10 at Murrayfield . Stuart Lancaster praised the character of his players after the match . Click here for all the latest Six Nations news .