When the end came it was wretched, rather than noble. An ignominious exit from the Rugby World Cup in contrast to the nobility shown earlier in the evening by Ireland.
England, regrettably, saved one of their most awful displays for the most important point in the tournament.
They were abject in the first half, devoid of any sense of fluency, understanding and accuracy, looking for all the world as if they had just met up.
Now that the road has come to an end for England, the next question will be as to what the future holds for Martin Johnson.
This is England's worst performance at a World Cup since 1999 and serious questions were raised then about the suitability of keeping Clive Woodward on board.
Of course we know what happened on that occasion but this has been a World Cup riddled with controversy, ill discipline and underperforming.
Johnson will have to answer some searching questions as to the England set-up when the squad return home early next week.
Even though there was improvement after the break in England's play, with tries scored by Ben Foden and Mark Cueto.
There was a still a sense of desperation in much of what England did. France did have to hang on, grimly at times, as they conceded penalty after penalty, but no-one could dispute that they were the better team on the evening.
Given that they themselves had been such a rabble up to this stage, the fact that England were unable to take advantage of such disarray in their camp can only add to the sense of failure.
England had promised int he build-up that for almost the first time in this campaign they would make a good start. It was anything but.
Once again there were errors galore, rushed passes and when there was no need to force the issue, and a singular lack of cohesion.
Given that all the talk just prior to the match had been as to who would be England's goal-kicker it was astonishing that neither Jonny Wilkinson or Toby Flood had a penalty kick at goal in the entire match.
Wilkinson's conversion of Foden's try in the 55th minute was his only telling contribution.
As he traipsed from the field in the 66th minute for Matt Banahan you did wonder if that was the last you might see of him in an England shirt.
He has made no such suggestion himself but you feel his time might be coming to an end. As with much of his play in the pool stages, Wilkinson was again hesitant and unable to trigger anything of great significance in the England backline.
The eagerly anticipated combination with Toby Flood yielded precisely nothing. Only the man outside Manu tuilagi, was able to draw anything from the evening in terms of satisfaction.
Once again Tuilagi for long stretches of the game was England's lone attacking threat.
The journey home will be a sobering one for England and they have failed to get anywhere near the heights that they did last year when Australia were beaten twice. There was solace in their attacking game but they have shown so little over the last five weeks.
France, now, have redeemed themselves and are a threat to anybody in this World Cup.
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