Eddie Jones’ side were outmuscled by France in Paris, going down 22-16 to suffer back-to-back defeats and hand Ireland the Six Nations title with a game to spare.
The new champions will head to west London next week targeting a Grand Slam, and 2003 Rugby World Cup winning captain Dallaglio believes they will win handsomely if the home side bear any resemblance to yesterday’s England.
“This was chariots of dire,” Dallaglio wrote in The Sunday Times.
“To watch it was as infuriating as it was fascinating.
“Discipline was awful.
“England conceded 16 penalties, an absurd number.
“Many of these stemmed from the breakdown.
“It is not as if they hadn’t had a recent warning about what would happen if they did not master the battle on the floor.
“If Jones had had all his players fit, there would have been a different look to the back row but the fixation on that unit should not detract criticism of what should be a collective effort from the pack.
“Yet again, it was the same problem: players going to ground too easily, getting isolated and holding on. That tells me that one of two things are wrong.
“Either players are going off script and not implementing the attacking game plan, or there appears to be a lack of clarity in that plan.”
Domination at the breakdown was a familiar story for England, who had been undone by Scotland’s lightweight, super-mobile back row a fortnight ago but showed little improvement after a weekend off.
And in his post-match comments, coach Jones admitted that the ruck remains an ongoing concern and that “selection changes” were inevitable in the face of new rules and refereeing interpretations.
“It’s a learning period for us and we are struggling at the moment, so we’re always looking to learn and make sure we’re stronger next time we play,” Jones said.
“We’re going through a difficult period and we’ll come out the other side of it soon I’m sure. We’re about two or three per cent from where we needed to be today.
“We were beaten at the breakdown, we gave away too many penalties, and when we had the momentum we didn’t score, whereas they did.”
He added: “We did not learn quick enough.
”Why I am not 100 percent sure. There’s no lack of effort.
“The game is changing a little bit.
“We are probably slow to adapt to it.
“As you could see at the end of the game when we had a bit of power on the field and got the ball going forward, our attack looked better.”