Six Nations: Dusautoir - 'It makes you weep... it was complete humiliation'

Dusautoir, who had been outstanding in France’s 21-16 over Wales two weeks ago, shouldered blame for the early Mark Cueto try – “I came up a bit too fast and left Sebastien Chabal exposed” – and hinted French complacency may have been a factor in their Sunday horror show.

“What’s disappointing was the collective acceptance of defeat in the first half. It makes you weep. It’s hard to find reasons,” he was quoted as saying in The Guardian.

“We need to look on the mental side because the team today was the same as against Wales and we tried to play in the same way, but we were not aggressive enough. It’s not a consistency thing, it’s even worse than that, a complete humiliation.

“My only explanation is that we didn’t turn up. Perhaps we did not get enough kicks in the backside to play well today. We are still little boys and need to be stung before we can produce a quality game,” he said.

Head coach Mark Lièvremont, meanwhile, showed a nice line in understatement when he admitted he was “a bit disappointed” in the after-match press interviews.

“We wanted to follow up what we did against Wales, but there was no game today,” he added.

To no-one’s surprise the man who loves to tinker then admitted that it was likely to be a much-changed France XV which takes the field against Italy next week.

“There will probably be several changes,” he said, before adding that he planned to make a team announcement on Monday – probably in the hope of heading off some of the biting criticism likely to flow his way from the French media.

France have now gone more than a year since their last away win – against Scotland in February 2008 – and the French coach admitted Sunday’s roasting had been “an enormous slap in the face”.

Chief among the questions likely to be asked this week is why was Sebastien Chabal – an excellent lock and handy number eight – deployed as a flanker against England? The big man’s immobility was exposed as early as the first minute for Cueto’s try and his rampaging runs were conspicuous by their absence.

All the more confusing given that Montpellier flanker Fulgence Ouedraogo had enjoyed a good tournament to date, prior to be being unceremoniously dropped for Twickenham.

But perhaps the Montpol back-row man won’t have minded sitting out this one too much, because he is probably the only French player to have enhanced his reputation.

Certainly the mounting criticism heading the way of skipper Lionel Nallet is likely to be unabated this week, even if the Castres player was forthright in his comments after the match.

“We never really got into the game. We started playing individually, not organised together and we gave a lot of confidence to England,” he said.

 But while the French embarked on what is likely to be a long week of soul-searching, and heavy media criticism, the story across the Channel couldn’t be more different.

Euphoria abounded after a performance that made a mockery of the critics’ pre-match predictions, and it was more a case of damping down expectations after the five-try victory.

“We’ve had some tough days here this season and got all the breaks in the first half, got some luck and executed very well,” said England manager Martin Johnson.

“It was a great example to the team of how we have to play and I think we are getting better each week. The plan is always to improve and there is still a lot to work on,” he added.

Full-back Delon Armitage, who played for France under-16s while living in the country as a teenager, was particularly satisfied after scoring against the nation which rejected him as not big enough to become an international.

“It means a lot to score against France,” he said. “There is a lot of history there with them letting me go. They told me I was a bit too small but I have got a bit taller and quicker since then so it’s nice to get the try,” he beamed.