Clive Woodward never thought he would see the day England were so badly outclassed on home soil after witnessing their record home loss to France.
France crossed over seven times in their astonishing 53-10 victory at Twickenham on Saturday to keep their Six Nations title defence alive.
It is the most points ever conceded by England in a home Test, overtaking the 42 points scored by South Africa in November 2008.
Woodward, who guided the Red Rose to World Cup glory in 2003, was left stunned by his former side's capitulation and is fearing the worst ahead of next week's trip to Ireland.
"England were never going to win that game; we were second best by a long, long way," he told ITV Sport. "To think we're going to play Ireland next week is a sobering thought.
"To actually see that in a Six Nations game... I never thought I'd see that scoreboard ever at Twickenham."
Fellow pundit Johnny Wilkinson described the loss as "a massive reality check" for England, who tasted defeat at home to France for the first time in 18 years.
England have now lost two of their four matches this campaign – Steve Borthwick's first since replacing Eddie Jones in December – and find themselves in fourth place.
Borthwick accepts England were too easily dismantled by France and knows there is a gulf between his side and the world's elite heading into the Rugby World Cup.
"Certainly you have to give immense credit to France and they are clearly a world-class team," he told ITV Sport. "We are really disappointed in that performance.
"There are lots of things we wanted to do but we couldn't execute. I think we lost collisions across both lines, attack and defence.
"We knew they have immense power and unfortunately we didn't deal with it. When we attacked they were able to dominate. There is plenty of work on the collision areas
"We got exposed today. I thought we would get a measure of where we are at – there is a big gap between us and the top teams in the world.
"I don't think it matters what I thought it [the gap] was before; I think we understand where we are and what we have to do."
France were 24 points to the good by half-time – another unwanted record for England in the Six Nations – with 23-point Thomas Ramos opening the scoring inside two minutes.
Thibaud Flament, Charles Ollivon and Damian Penaud all crossed over twice each in a one-sided contest, with Freddie Steward scoring England's only try.
It is the first time in the Six Nations era that three different France players have scored two tries each in a single game.
Reflecting on one of England's all-time worst displays, captain Ellis Genge admitted there can be no excuses.
"I am not going to sugar-coat it. That is one of our worst performances and we were punished numerous times," he said.
"We asked the boys to keep fighting and I think for 80 per cent of it we were fighting. The momentum was against us for too long and we didn't claw it back.
"I am not hiding away from it – we were well beaten today. [France] are brilliant. They have shown time and time again why they are the number two team in the world.
"We are way off where we want to be. If I had the answers I would be somewhere else earning millions. It's a bit of a mystery at the moment."
'Job not done' for Springboks after All Blacks triumph, says Kolisi
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi warned his team the job is far from done despite them rallying for a thrilling victory over New Zealand in the Rugby Championship on Saturday.
The Springboks secured a 31-27 win over the All Blacks at Ellis Park, coming from behind with two late tries from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Grant Williams.
The victory hauled South Africa onto 14 points in the Championship standings as they bid to end New Zealand's four-year stranglehold on the title, but Kolisi says there is still work to be done.
Addressing the capacity crowd in his post-match interview, Kolisi said: "We play for a lot but you people are our number one motivation.
"We appreciate you every single day. Please don't stop. When times are tough, please keep supporting us. We cannot do it without you.
"We respect the All Blacks. No matter what people say about them, when they need to turn up, they turn up. We believed in ourselves, we didn't panic, and we did what we wanted.
"They were catching us on the exit. After the first try in the second half, we picked it up. I'm really proud of the boys but the job is not done."
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett, meanwhile, was proud of his team-mates' efforts but admitted they had just fallen short of putting together a complete performance.
"Well done to the Springboks, it showed the class team they are," he said. "We weren't quite good enough. We were good for 62 minutes and it's an 80-minute game.
"There were two key moments after kick-offs where we couldn't quite get out of our half and they punished us. It was a huge effort, we're certainly proud, but it was just not quite to be.
"We'll regroup pretty quickly. Some guys have played here for the first time. It's intense and we'll have to be better next week."
South Africa host New Zealand again in Cape Town next week, while Australia go to Argentina for their round-three matchup.
Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 Leipzig: Visitors fightback halts unbeaten streak for Alonso's side
Bayer Leverkusen suffered their first defeat in 36 Bundesliga matches, as Leipzig came from behind to stun Xabi Alonso's side 3-2 at BayArena.
Lois Openda struck twice for Marco Rose's, who recovered from 2-0 down to make it two wins from two and move to the summit of the table.
It looked like business as usual for the reigning Bundesliga champions when they scored twice in the last seven minutes of the first half through Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo.
However, Leipzig replied deep into first-half stoppage time with Kevin Kampl reducing the deficit.
Openda then brought the visitors level in the 57th minute, before a stunning long-range strike completed the turnaround 10 minutes from time, condemning Leverkusen to their first league defeat in 15 months.
Data Debrief: Leverkusen's long streak comes to a shuddering halt
Leipzig became the first side to beat Leverkusen in a Bundesliga match since Bochum achieved the feat a staggering 462 days earlier.
The visitors have begun a Bundesliga season with two wins from two for only the second time, also doing so in 2019-20.
They are also now unbeaten in 13 league matches, their longest such streak since Rose took charge.
As for Leverkusen, their invincible streak is officially history, as is their 29-game unbeaten run on home soil.
Record-breaking Root edges England closer to Sri Lanka victory
Joe Root hit a record-breaking century as England edged closer to sealing their series victory over Sri Lanka at Lord's.
Root, who equalled Alastair Cook's record during the first innings of the second Test, made 103 from 111 balls for his 34th Test ton.
England resumed on 25-1 at the start of day three, with Root leading the way for the hosts and the crowd rose as one when a sweeping four completed his landmark century.
He helped his nation set their opponents a target of 483 after they were 251 all out.
As the light faded over Lord's, so too did Sri Lanka's momentum in their record-attempting chase, with Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone claiming Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka respectively.
Play was eventually halted due to bad light, and called off to be resumed on Sunday with the tourists at 53-2 with Dimuth Karunaratne (23) and Prabath Jayasuriya (three) at the crease.
Data Debrief: Root revels on record-breaking day
Day three of the second Test belonged to Root, whose century was also his quickest in Test cricket.
Adding to his 143 in England's first innings, he registered two tons in a match for the first time, while becoming only the fourth player to achieve that feat in a Test at Lord's.
Root also joins Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar in scoring 5,000 Test runs in two different decades, while closing the gap on Cook's all-time England tally (12,472) to just 95.
If that was not enough for him, he also took the catches for both of Sri Lanka's wickets, making him the first England player to reach 200 in Test cricket.
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