England manager Martin Johnson was left upbeat despite his team's narrow 12-10 loss to France that handed 'Les Bleus' a first Six Nations Grand Slam in six years.
England opened the game at the Stade de France smartly and targeted French centre Mathieu Bastareaud in attack.
One such move led to a slick try for fleet-footed full-back Ben Foden after Bastareaud's rush defence was caught out.
But for much of the match, the French ground down the English with a superior set-piece and kicking game, although the home side's lack of attacking desire in the final 20 minutes allowed England back into a game whose scoreline was much closer than it should have been.
"Of course we are frustrated, we lost," said Johnson, the captain of the 2003 World Cup-winning England team.
"But I thought we did the things we wanted to do.
"We knew that if we trusted our hands we could get around Bastareaud -that led to the first try.
"The weather conditions changed dramatically during the game, and there was a lot of spilled ball."
France put the "set piece under pressure in the first half, and penalties came from that", he added.
"But I said to the guys as France picked up the trophy 'you have played the Grand Slam champions and you took them all the way'."
Johnson added that many of his younger players, notably the back three, had set down a marker with the next Rugby World Cup to be held in New Zealand next year.
"A lot of players came of age today. It was (scrum-half) Danny Care's best performance for England, Toby Flood as well in the way he managed the game and managed the week after coming in for Jonny Wilkinson.
"It was great to have (centre) Mike Tindall back. Ben Foden's counter-attacking, his play under the high ball was great.
"Mark Cueto was outstanding again and (debutant winger Chris) Ashton handled it very well."
Three Morgan Parra penalties and an opportunistic Francois Trinh-Duc drop-goal, all scored in the first-half, were enough to see France edge England in a tense end.
"They won the kicking game in the first half and their set piece got us under pressure," added Johnson.
"We did well still to be in the game at half-time with the penalty count against us.
"In the second half we were tactically better and the majority of the game was played in their half."
But England could not breach a disciplined French defence, with the only score of the half a long-distance penalty by Wilkinson with 15 minutes to play.
Far from being a disappointment, this season's Six Nations was more a case of 'what if', according to Johnson.
"We've lost two games by a combined total of six points," he said of the defeats to France and second-placed Ireland (20-16).
"We missed a penalty by one metre in the drawn Scotland game. It was a case of could have. But there are probably four teams saying that."
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