France have won the Grand Slam by beating World champions England 24-21 in a heart-stopping finish to the Six Nations rugby tournament.
France, thrashed by England in the World Cup semi-final last year, were superior in all areas in the first half at the Stade de France and led 21-3 at the break.
However, the introduction of centre Mike Catt added a new dimension to England's attack and tries by wings Ben Cohen and Josh Lewsey put England in with a chance for a sensational win.
However, France held their nerve to win their fourth Grand Slam in eight years.
"I am very, very happy, we wanted to win against the best team in the world," said France coach Bernard Laporte.
France scrumhalf Dimitry Yachvili scored 19 points. England finished third in the tournament behind Ireland who beat them at Twickenham this month.
"I am disappointed but I think France probably deserved to win," said England coach Clive Woodward.
"We made a lot of mistakes in the first half and in the second half we went out and took it to them," said England wing Ben Cohen. "We nearly sneaked it."
In Dublin, Ireland won the Triple Crown for the first time in 19 years and only the seventh time in their history when they beat a spirited Scotland 37-16.
Two tries from centre Gordon D'Arcy and one from Geordan Murphy, Peter Stringer and David Wallace were enough to see off Scotland who, despite a gutsy first-half display, slumped to their fifth straight defeat and took the wooden spoon.
Not since 1985, when Ciaran Fitzgerald was captain and Mick Doyle their coach, had Ireland completed a clean sweep of their 'home nation' rivals -- England, Scotland and Wales.
"The whole team is going to go nuts, it's such an honour for the whole country," said D'Arcy, one of the revelations of the championship.
Wales ran in six tries, including two each for wingers Shane and Rhys Williams, as their backline tore Italy to shreds in a 44-10 victory.
Against a disorganised Italian side, Wales gave coach Steve Hansen a glorious send-off in his final game in charge.
Fullback Gareth Thomas broke the Welsh try-scoring record with his 34th in his 77th international, beating the mark of former winger Ieuan Evans.
"It doesn't get much better than that, it was a good way to finish," said Hansen who is returning to his native New Zealand to help coach the All Blacks.
"They [Wales] really played well and scored some great tries. To play as well as we did today was pretty satisfying."
Wales finished the championship with four points, after also beating Scotland 23-10, and Italy with two for a 20-14 defeat of Scotland.
