Dan Cole, Louis Deacon, Toby Flood and Ben Youngs started all five Championship matches, with club colleague Tom Croft returning from injury in time to score a valuable try in the win over Scotland and then come off the bench again in Saturday’s trip to Ireland.
After four successive wins, Martin Johnson’s England were chasing a first Grand Slam since the World Cup-winning year of 2003, but they were finally beaten 24-8 in Dublin.
Here was still the consolation of lifting the Championship trophy, however, for the first time in eight years, a feat which was confirmed once France had beaten Wales on Saturday evening.
Fly-half Flood, who finished as the tournament's top points-scorer and was shortlisted for the RBS Player of the Championship award, said: “There is a huge disappointment that we weren’t able to finish it off with a Grand Slam but the team is still growing and we know there is still room for improvement.”
All five, plus Italy international prop Martin Castrogiovanni, now return to Tigers in preparation for Saturday's Aviva Premiership match against Bath at the Recreation Ground.
