France issue England World Cup wake up call

LONDON – England have been given a reality check ahead of next month’s Rugby World Cup after going down 25-20 against a fired up France team in Paris on Saturday.

You would have to go back some time to find a match where England looked so clueless against a fellow Northern Hemisphere country after being dominated in almost every facet of the game. Two late tries to Danny Cipriani and Jonathan Joseph added some respectability to the score. However, England were outmuscled, out-thought, out-ran and simply outplayed.

Full credit must go to France who’s forward pack yet again fronted up and shunted a very fragile-looking England team. While they did play well in many facets of the game, France coach Philippe Saint Andre will be disappointed in his team after they looked to have turned off with 15 minutes to go.

With one more World Cup warm-up match against Ireland in a fortnight, England’s team management will be scratching their heads about how they move forward toward the Rugby World Cup. Their organisation was poor, they looked unfit and their decision making was questionable as France made them pay for aimless kicks by pivot George Ford.

England only started to gain parity up front in the final quarter however, that was well after the game was lost.