England's downfall in Paris at the weekend was partly orchestrated by defensive expert Dave Ellis, who remains as the only Englishman on course for a Grand Slam in this year's Championship.

Yorkshireman Ellis, 44, was responsible for the hugely effective defensive display by the 'les bleus' that shattered Clive Woodward's own Grand Slam dream.

Ellis claimed the victory was the result of calling 'an English bluff'.

"They came here thinking they were invincible and that their rugby was unstoppable," he told the Daily Mail. "They were put on a pedestal and they were there to be knocked off. Well, they're not there any more because we have knocked them off, well and truly."

"We studied the way they attacked and found a weakness in their system," he said. "When they are on one extreme side of the field, their last line of defence is in the middle of the pitch. So they leave half the field open for the opposition.

"It's a bit of a bluff. But nobody had taken them on before. So we said: "Right, we'll have a go". As a result there was panic in the English defence because we didn't attack them down the middle.

"We attacked them out wide, then switched it to the other side and dragged them across the field. They had no time to reorganise and their defensive formation fell apart. They concentrate their pack in a tight wall. Once we broke them up, we had the choice to go open, blind or have Galthie going through a gap near the ruck."

"I'm the happiest Englishman in Paris," he added before returning home to Wakefield. "I still think England are the best team in the world but that's another Grand Slam gone. I don't really care about that. My job is with the French.

"Last year it was the Irish who turned the English over, the year before it was Scotland and the year before that, Wales. I was always confident that this was going to be our turn because we would be in their faces all the time. We were never going to give them the space Ireland gave them."

Former miner Ellis was made redundant in 1987 and soon after found work as a player-coach in Townsville and Toowoomba, moving on to Auckland, Paris Saint-Germain, Harrogate and Racing Club de Paris.