Joe Schmidt's men beat Scotland 28-8 in Dublin, crucially running in four tries to ensure England would need to do likewise and triumph at Stade de France to keep the battle for the title alive.

However, England, the champion over the past two seasons, followed up its loss to Scotland last time out with another reverse, going down 22-16 in Paris as France claimed a morale-boosting win.

In 2017, Ireland denied England a Grand Slam when they met in the final round with the latter already assured of the Six Nations title.

England will seek to gain revenge for that reverse on 18 March (AEDT), but Ireland will win the tournament regardless.

Jacob Stockdale crossed twice in the first half for Ireland to become the first Irishman to score six tries in a single campaign, before Conor Murray added a third after the interval.

Sean Cronin's fourth proved decisive and meant England needed to score at least four tries in winning in the day's late kick-off, a task that would prove far beyond Eddie Jones's men.

Scotland's shock win at Murrayfield last weekend put England's title defence in a precarious state, but its away struggles continued in Dublin. Scotland has won only two matches outside Edinburgh or Rome since the championship expanded to six teams in 2000.

Ireland adopted a positive approach from kick-off and, after putting Scotland under early pressure, opted to kick a penalty for touch rather than settle for three points from the boot of Jonathan Sexton.

That decision bore no fruit and Scotland punished its host with its first real foray into the Ireland half after 12 minutes, when Greig Laidlaw knocked over from the tee for the first points of the match.

As the odd loose pass crept into the Irish game, Scotland demonstrated the extent of its handling skills in a bright period of play for Gregor Townsend's men.

However, it was an ambitious attempted pass from Peter Horne that led to the opening try, with Stockdale making the interception to give himself a clear run for the line.

Sexton's conversion opened up a 7-3 lead after 24 minutes but Scotland should have been back in front soon after when Huw Jones fluffed his lines by misplacing a pass to Stuart Hogg with the full-back virtually guaranteed to touch down if the delivery was better.

Scotland's determination to play the first half at a frantic pace came with frustratingly little reward and, after Bundee Aki was held up on the line, Stockdale stepped inside Blair Kinghorn to stretch Ireland's advantage to 11 points on the stroke of half-time, his 10th try in eight Tests.

Having rued an inspired Scotland display at Murrayfield last weekend, England fans would have been praying for a second-half recovery but had to watch through their fingers as Murray was dragged over the line to edge Ireland closer to the all-important bonus point.

Scotland again failed to take a chance when it was presented after 50 minutes, the pass from Hogg played too high for Kinghorn, who did touch down in the corner moments later, although Laidlaw was unable to add the extras.

Another missed Sexton penalty raised questions over Ireland's decision to go for the posts rather than touch with 15 minutes left, but replacement Cronin crossed after a driving maul to keep the Grand Slam hopes alive.