JUST as their senior counterparts did on Sunday, Simon Whatling and his England U21 team mates wilted in the second hald of their Six Nation's clash against France on Friday night and suffered a last minute loss.

The 20-year-old former Devizes and Chippenham junior and ex-student of Devizes School played his way into the starting inside centre jersey for the match in Northampton with a strong performance off the bench in the loss to Wales on February 4, but his side couldn't secure their first win of this season's Six Nation's campaign despite leading 17-0 after 20 minutes.

It was from an accurate Whatling kick that David Seymour and local hero Paul Diggin charged down an attempted clearance from Benjamin Dambielle and Matt Cornwell followed up for the touchdown.

Ross Broadfoot added the conversion and he also improved Richard Blaze's try after a clever chip and chase from Bath's Ryan Davis.

After a further Broadfoot penalty, the French pack then took a rolling maul 40 metres downfield, the penny dropped, and they employed similar one dimensional but effective tactics for the rest of the game.

The English forwards struggled to deal with the French approach, just as they had been outmuscled by Wales the previous week, and first flanker Aurelien Diotallevi and lock Damien Fevre were driven over for close range tries and fly-half Regis Lespinas put over a drop goal to trim England's lead to three points.

Despite struggling in the tight, especially when second row Blaze was sin binned, England looked like holding on for a memorable win as they repelled a series of close-range attacks, but just after Whatling was replaced in the 78th minute, Mirande was able to snake over for the winning try.

Now pushing for a contract at Worcester after four seasons at Bath, Whatling put in a strong showing throughout the first half, but made a few mistakes in the second period, mainly due to sporadic and often scrappy ball supplied by a backpeddaling pack in front of him.

"I was quite happy with the way I played overall, the first half was better than the second, but we didn't have a lot of ball after the break.

"I would say I was solid, not brilliant, but I was able to show the different aspects of my game."

Despite the loss England coach Jim Mallinder was able to take consolation from a vastly-improved performance: "We made considerable steps forward from the Wales game last week, we have still got a young group of players and I am sure they will only get better."

Whatling is hoping he has done enough to retain his place in the starting line-up for the trip to Donnybrook in Dublin on Friday, February 25, to face the Irish.

"You never know what the selectors are going to do, but I'd like to think I've done enough to stay in the side."

Whatling will spent this weekend at in Devizes before joining the England squad next week at Bath University.