Top class.

England were well beaten on Sunday by a French side filled with young, inexperienced players who gave us a taste of what’s to come for French rugby when you reward form and bring in a world-class like Shaun Edwards to guide them.

France have won the last two U20 World Championships – so to be fair to them, this was brewing for quite some time.

Sure England were poor at times but credit where credit is due – those youngsters were fearless and played some absolutely beautiful rugby at times.

One of the few England players who actually had a decent game on Sunday was Joe Marler (he made our Six Nations Team of the Week after all). The loosehead prop gave his all and couldn’t have done much more to help his team.

He also showed his class after the game. Once the final whistle had blown, Marler went to speak to the French coaches to find out a little bit more about the man he had come up against at the Stade de France – 25-year-old Mohamed Haouas.

Once they had filled him in, Marler met up with Haoaus in the French changing room and offered the Montpellier prop his jersey from the game.

According to the Midi Olympique, Haouas offered to exchange his, but Marler refused, saying:

“It’s the jersey from your first cap, you shouldn’t swap it or give it to anyone.”

Top class from Marler. Haouas will remember this for a long time.