Stuart Lancaster hailed his England team as they fell agonisingly short of claiming their first Six Nations title in four years on an extraordinary, record-breaking day. After big wins by Wales and Ireland, England knew they needed to beat France by 26 points at Twickenham to win the Championship. They ran in seven tries in a brilliant display of attacking rugby to beat France 55-35 but paid the price for a leaky defence — and wasting six try opportunities last week against Scotland. Stuart Lancaster (centre left) praised his England side's courage but admitted he was 'gutted' to lose out . Lancaster looks dejected alongside his players at the end of the exciting RBS Six Nations match . Wales beat Italy 61-20 in Rome, but saw their efforts then dashed by Ireland's 40-10 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield. Stuart Hogg went over the line in the last few minutes but the try was disallowed — costing Lancaster's men the chance of a title. England scrum-half Ben Youngs, who scored two tries, said: 'I don't really know what to say. I am absolutely devastated. 'We really gave it a crack but for all the hard work we showed, you cannot let them back in the game and we are just gutted. We knew that the French would tire but we just gave ourselves too much to climb in the end.' Man-of-the-match Ben Youngs scored two tries for England but it wasn't enough to claim the title . England were defensively weak and made too many individual mistakes over the 80 minutes . Lancaster added: 'We are gutted. It was one of the most courageous performances I have seen from a team. 'But it is desperately disappointing not to get that try at the end. Their first two tries hurt us and to come back as we did before half-time and then to concede the first try of the second half — it will go down as one of the great games of rugby. 'To go down like we did and show the character to come back. It was an unbelievable game of rugby and it was desperately disappointing not to get that try at the end. 'Credit to Ireland for winning the championship, they beat us and congratulations to Joe (Schmidt) and all his team.'
England needed just six more points against France to win the Six Nations . Ireland claimed the title after beating Scotland 40-10 at Murrayfield . Stuart Lancaster praised the character of his players after the match . Click here for all the latest Six Nations news .