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Jones' eyes firmly set on Grand Slam

The English, who last won the Six Nations in 2011, opened their campaign with a 15-9 win over Scotland before thrashing Italy 40-9, seeing off Ireland 21-10 and edging Wales 25-21 on Saturday.

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They will now aim for a first Grand Slam since their World Cup-winning year of 2003 with victory away to France on March 19.

"It's obviously nice to win the championship, but I think as a team we haven't achieved what we want to achieve and that's the Grand Slam. It's a fantastic achievement by the team. You look at the squad, it's still very much the same squad as the World Cup, so that squad's changed itself and the real credit goes to the players.

"If we prepare well, we'll do the business [in France]. We'll go to Paris confident. France are always going to be a difficult side and they showed that at times today, they can play absolutely sublime rugby. At other times it's not so sublime, so we have to make sure they don't have too many sublime moments," Jones told the BBC.

In Edinburgh, Scotland's victory over France was their first in 10 years in a Six Nations match and the first time in three years that the Scots have produced back-to-back wins in the northern hemisphere's leading competition.

It sets them up for a trip to Dublin next week where victory should see them finish in the top half of the table.

"This is the reason we pull on this jersey. We make so many sacrifices, and that was for the fans. I thought we scored some great tries. France put a lot of width on the game and we had to scramble for each other. You can see what it meant to us.

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"To lead this team at Murrayfield is something that will stay with me forever. We were all as one today. It was outstanding," Scotland captain Greg Laidlaw said.

The Scots led 18-12 at half-time, Stuart Hogg and Duncan Taylor crossing for tries, Laidlaw booting one conversion and two penalties. France fired back with two of their own through Guilhem Guirado and Gael Fickou, Maxime Machenaud notching up one conversion.

Hogg and Machenaud traded penalties early in the second period before Tim Visser crossed for Scotland's third try. Laidlaw wrapped the game up with a third penalty, handing England the spoils of the Six Nations crown.

Agence France-Presse

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