FIve members of Saracens helped England to Six Nations success as they sealed a 34-5 victory over Italy on Halloween, before France beat Ireland.

Ham & High: England's Billy Vunipola (right) runs at Italy's Marco Lazzaroni during the Guinness Six Nations match at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome.England's Billy Vunipola (right) runs at Italy's Marco Lazzaroni during the Guinness Six Nations match at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome. (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Eddie Jones’ side had claimed a bonus-point win against Italy earlier on Saturday, with Sarries hooker Jamie George scoring a try on his 50th appearance, but faced a tense wait as both teams in the day’s final fixture attempted to take the title.

England’s first title since 2017 was confirmed by France’s 35-27 victory.

Ireland, who would have taken the crown if they had beaten France by six points or more, led 10-7 at one point.

England captain and Saracens star Owen Farrell said: “It’s a massive achievement for us as a group to win the Guinness Six Nations in the strangest year and circumstances.

Ham & High: England's Maro Itoje wins a lineout against Italy's Paolo Garbisi during the Guinness Six Nations match at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome.England's Maro Itoje wins a lineout against Italy's Paolo Garbisi during the Guinness Six Nations match at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome. (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

“We’ve worked really hard in training the past few weeks to get ready for the Italy game, we knew what we had to do and we kept our focus and got the result.

“This is a great group of players, we really think we can continue to get better and achieve more for England.

“We’re turning our attentions now to the Autumn Nations Cup, we want consistent success and we’re working hard to be better in each and every game.

“We know how difficult things are for everyone at home at the moment and we’ve been saying all through our training camps how we want to do our bit to make people smile. Hopefully we’ve done that and we’ll do more of the same throughout the autumn.”

England head coach Jones added: “I’m very proud of all the players and staff. They’ve reacted superbly to the changing situations in the past couple of weeks and remained focused on the goal of winning the Guinness Six Nations.

“We’ll have a couple of days rest then get back together later next week and put everything we have into our preparation for the Autumn Nations Cup.

“It’s another really important tournament for us and I’ll be expecting the same levels of application as we work towards performing at our best.

“We’d also like to thank all of our supporters. It’s strange not having fans in the stadium and we know it is a tough time for the country but we felt your support throughout the campaign and it does make a difference. Hopefully we can continue to deliver more good moments for our fans in the coming weeks.”