'Humiliating': England turns on 'feeble' rugby team as France seizes total control in Six Nations title race

England's media turned on its "feeble" rugby team after what ex-captain Lawrence Dallaglio lashed as a "humiliating" loss to Ireland at the weekend.

After only three rounds, England is out of the title race while France remained on course for the Six Nations title with a comfortable 33-8 win against Italy.

Only a week ago, England was surfing a wave of 12 straight wins. But all of that momentum and confidence built up in 12 months has been wiped out after consecutive emphatic losses to Scotland and Ireland in the Six Nations.

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Scotland ended the streak at Murrayfield and Ireland tore down Twickenham's walls in a record 42-21 win.

"Guilty of one of [the] most unacceptable displays I have ever seen," a furious Dallaglio wrote in The Times.

"Every single player was beaten and bettered by their opposite number. In defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend, you could - if you tried - argue that England were the victim of unfortunate errors. But against Ireland, they were completely broken on both sides of the ball. They got bashed to pieces."

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Dallaglio is a World Rugby Hall of Famer and was a star of England's 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning team. England is still rated third favourites to win next year's World Cup in Australia but serious questions are being asked over Steve Borthwick's side.

"It was unacceptable. Fans couldn't watch," Dallaglio continued to rage.

"You could have been forgiven for thinking that the fire alarm was going off in the second half, because English supporters were heading for the exits in their droves. And I felt their pain. The truth is, I am devastated. I am angry.

"I hope the players and the coaches are too. I can't remember a match in which the difference between expectation and reality has been so great: I thought it would be close, instead what we got was one of the most disappointing performances Twickenham has ever seen."

At the Six Nations launch last month, Borthwick talked up the last-round match against France on March 14 as a potential title decider, but now he has to be worried about what shape his side will be in when they get to Paris.

"Two weeks ago after 12 wins on the bounce, people were saying we were the best team in the world," Borthwick told the BBC.

"And now we are all sorts of things. Neither of these are true. We are on a journey of development that has a lot of growth in it. That England team from today will be a lot better in two weeks' time."

Another bad start doomed England. Scotland was 17-0 ahead after 14 minutes. Ireland was 22-0 ahead after 30.

"It was bitterly disappointing and huge credit to Ireland, they took their chances and their kicking game was excellent," Borthwick said.

"This team has been very, very good for quite a long time in games that are tight, even if we go a score or two down, being very strong in that second half and always finding a way to win that second half.

"Unfortunately for two weeks now we have given ourselves a mountain to climb, given the opposition too many points and we have not got scoreboard presence. We will be looking closely at that and how I set the team up to make sure it doesn't happen again."

What was particularly dismaying for England was the role its leadership played in its own downfall.

Captain Maro Itoje, on the occasion of his 100th England Test, was pulled after 54 minutes, two minutes less than he lasted against Scotland. Itoje usually plays the full 80 and is impactful.

Also taken off early were scrumhalf Alex Mitchell, hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and fullback Freddy Steward in the first half as Borthwick tried to stop the bleeding. George Ford failed with two early touch-finders and received an ironic cheer when he finally found touch. Yellow cards to Steward and Henry Pollock led to 14 Ireland points.

"There was no way of avoiding the F words: frightful, feeble, fragile, feckless, fumbling. England's Six Nations is over and a few international careers may well go with it," Alex Lowe wrote in The Times.

"While Farrell's senior men seized control of the game, it was England's established figures who let them down again; George Ford, Ellis Genge, Ollie Lawrence and Tom Curry were way off the pace and the standard required."

Prop Genge apologised.

"Conceding so many points in the first 15 minutes, no one knows what the answer is right now or we would have sorted it out," Genge told the BBC.

"It opened up scar tissue from last week. Sorry to the fans, you have been outstanding. We have let everyone down. Apologies for that but I promise we will make it better."

Nik Simon was equally savage writing for the Daily Mail.

"With 10 minutes left to play, English fans filed out of their seats to drown their sorrows in the cold Twickenham concourse. They would rather queue up at a breezeblock bar than watch any more of this humiliation by an Irish team who were supposed to be on the wane," Simon wrote.

"This was one of the worst days of the Steve Borthwick tenure. Their systems failed. England's 12-match winning run suddenly feels like a distant memory as they crashed to their second defeat of the championship. Their collapse has been remarkable and they are now facing the prospect of a bottom-half finish in this year's Six Nations.

"Borthwick predicted a state of euphoria at Twickenham but this was the polar opposite to that carefree state of extreme happiness."

Fabien Galthie's side, meanwhile, is the only team to have won all three matches.

France grabbed five tries for a bonus-point win over Italy and has 18 tries so far, having managed a tournament record 30 last year.

Jet-heeled left winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, lock Emmanuel Meafou and makeshift fly-half Thomas Ramos scored first-half tries at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, two of them set up by star scrumhalf Antoine Dupont.

But after leading 19-0 inside 30 minutes, the French tried too much entertaining as indiscipline allowed Italy back in.

An opportunist try from fullback Ange Capuozzo followed by Paolo Garbisi's penalty pulled it back to 19-8.

"It was a tough match as expected, very tight, against an opponent who put us under pressure, especially in the rucks," Galthie said.

"At one point, it became a real arm wrestle."

The scoreboard stayed static until 31 minutes into the second half when the ever-alert Ramos kicked into the right corner to give winger Gael Drean a try on Test debut.

That try came with down to 14 players after winger Louis Lynagh - the son of Australian fly-half great Michael Lynagh - was carelessly sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.

Italy's bench was angry at the try, which came with the Italians effectively down to 13 because Capuozzo was not yet back on the field following treatment for a shoulder injury.

Centre Emilien Gailleton showed his strength when he broke a tackle to dive over in the closing stages, and Ramos converted.

"It wasn't our most complete performance. But I can tell you Italy really fought hard, we were not surprised by their intensity," Ramos said.

"We have two matches left to go and get the title."