The Red Roses won their seventh consecutive Six Nations title with a narrow 43-42 win over France at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday, and John Mitchell said the scare was "ideal" for his England side ahead of the Rugby World Cup later this year.
England are on an incredible 25-match unbeaten run and secured their fourth Grand Slam in a row with the one-point win over France. The visitors pushed them close and teed up a nail-biting finish thanks to Joanna Grisez's late try, but England held on for the victory.
The Red Roses scored seven tries overall with Abby Dow (two), Emma Sing (two), Lark Atkin-Davies, Claudia MacDonald and captain Zoe Alcroft all crossing, but Mitchell was left disappointed with their defence.
"It was ideal for us," Mitchell said post-match. "After a really good start we could have put them away, but they got energy through the middle of us and once a French side gets that energy, they eye success. So we always talked about the fact that we probably had to win the game three or four times. I think we had to win it nine times.
"I wasn't happy with the defence. I thought they got through us too easy through the middle. We adjusted that at half-time, but the edge of the defence was not up to standard."
The Red Roses are the dominant team in the sport and are the clear favourites to win the World Cup later this year on home soil.
Mitchell said his team must learn to cope with teams raising their game for the challenge of facing the competition favourites and said England must find a way to raise their game for such tasks.
"The Red Roses is a unique team right at the minute and has been for a while, but teams are allowed to perform against this. That's something that will happen and will continue to happen in '25. So it's just going to help us raise our game. I'm gonna have to raise our game which is very really clear."
Sing did well in Ellie Kildunne's absence at fullback, and Mitchell hopes the experience of playing in front of a large crowd at Twickenham will put his group in good stead for us ahead of the World Cup later this year.
"I think she had a really good start to the game, but -- and she acknowledged this herself -- you have to be in the game, post-action. And I think she probably learned a lot about how quick it is and how people shut down her space. But, really good for her.
"In the coaching meeting this morning, we worked out that after today 95% of the girls that are likely to go to the World Cup have all had experience of playing in the stadium; before this game, that that wouldn't have been the case. That has definitely been a situation that we've planned for as well to make sure that the broader group had an experience here and now we've got a chance to enjoy ourselves on a break and come back and earn the right to contest here again."
Aldcroft added: "We obviously learned a massive amount from that game. I think it was just being really clear with the messaging and just giving one next job for the team to really go after. Credit to the French team, I think their speed of play was really outstanding today."