It was not meant to be in Bordeaux as the Red Roses ran away 42-21 winners on the final day at Stade Chaban-Delmas in front of a fervent French crowd.
Gabrielle Vernier’s storming effort and Marine Ménager’s brace buoyed France, who knocked hard on England’s defensive door, further boosted by Lina Queyroi’s expert kicking.
But the game seemed to slip through their fingers after Les Bleues were reduced to fourteen when Assia Khalfaoui saw red for head-on-head contact against Morwenna Talling midway through the second half.
“They were little details, the small details were not up to the level but there have been some great details as well, we keep growing and performing better all the time,” Mignot said, reaping the positives from a hard-fought fixture.
“The first half was quite complicated, we can’t judge everything off one single game.
“The adventure keeps getting bigger and we keep getting better all the time. We never give up as usual and we will get better.
“We’ve really grown out of this game, we’ve won more games than we actually thought we would win this year.
“We’re going to fix these small details and make it right for next year.”
Like their English opponents, France were four from four going into the duel on home soil.
The last time Les Bleues got the better of England on the Championship's final day was 2016.
Mignot scored twice as a player in that game and fellow co-head coach David Ortiz sees the same potential now, in a side that carried more metres than Grand Slam champions England in the decider.
“We were planning to have a very offensive game and the final outcome is that we made a 200 per cent improvement,” Ortiz said.
“It’s very positive despite the result today and we are really gaining more of a master of the game and we can see that all players have huge potential.
“When you play sports at such a high level, it’s highly demanding to master your game but we’ve clearly identified these points where we want to control.
“We have to remember we finished with 14 players and we know all the points that can be identified to win in the next games.”
A 28,023-strong French record crowd for a standalone women’s Test created a cauldron of noise in favour of the visitors, which spurred the hosts on a stage set perfectly for the competition’s climax.
Though Les Bleues fell short of Six Nations silverware this year, their steely competitiveness already has the squad eyeing next year’s campaign with equal determination to go all the way.
Captain Manaé Feleu added: “For us, it’s always a great pleasure to see so many people come and see us.
“We play for ourselves but we also play for the audience, our fans and everybody.
“I’m very happy to see that everybody is watching us, this is very encouraging to work even more and do better.”
