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London - England centre Jamie Noon has admitted the world champions received a "smack in the face" during the course of last weekend's embarrassing Six Nations defeat against France.
The tournament favourites comfortable 31-6 win in Paris was made easier by a series of basic of errors from England, already beaten by Scotland during this year's tournament.
England have one last chance to restore some pride when Triple Crown-chasing Ireland arrive at Twickenham for Saturday's Six Nations finale.
England coach Andy Robinson is due to announce his team at the squad's Surrey training base, south-west of London, later on Tuesday and Noon - whose failure to catch a high-kick led to the first of France's three tries - faces a nervous wait to see if he has retained his place.
| It was also their second straight match without a try |
Their Stade de France slump was England's seventh defeat in 14 Six Nations matches since lifting the World Cup in 2003 and all but ended their chances of winning this year's Championship.
It was also their second straight match without a try and they must beat Ireland in order to avoid losing three Six Nations matches for the second time in as many seasons.
Time is running out until the 2007 World Cup in France and questions are now being asked of Robinson and England's extensive backroom staff.
Noon refused to hide from the awfulness of Sunday's performance, saying: "We really needed to win that game, but we were rubbish and France were good. We have taken a smack in the face.
"We made a lot of errors, and you can't go into a game at any level and make as many mistakes as we did and expect to compete, let alone win.
"We've got to have a look at it, try and work on why there were so many mistakes and sort it out for next weekend.
"The guys want to finish on a high and play the sort of rugby we started the tournament with. We've had two error-filled games, and we've lost them both."
Meanwhile England scrumhalf Matt Dawson refused to use the fact that he and several of his team-mates suffered from a stomach bug as an explanation for the side's dire display.
"We will not use it as an excuse. We were not up to it, our skill level wasn't where it should have been," Dawson told BBC Radio 5 Live. There is more to be worried about than a couple of players feeling dodgy."
And he was adamant Robinson, formerly assistant to World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward, was the right man to lead England through their current slump. "Andy is a very experienced coach. He has been around a long time in the England set-up, as have all the other coaches.
"Like the majority of players, they are very self-critical and analyse where they can improve.
"They may not have lost so many games in a short period of time, and maybe that is a new stage in their coaching developing they need to look at, but they've got the ability to rectify where we are."
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