ENGLAND’S World Cup preparations suffered a setback when Stuart Lancaster’s side were beaten 25-20 by France in Paris last night.
The home side dominated from the start, with England chasing shadows, and it was only thanks to a late fight-back by England that the final score was so close.
England consistently gave away possession, and Lancaster was left with several serious headaches less than a month before the World Cup kicks off. It was something of a triumph for England that they only trailed 15-6 at the break, but Lancaster was left to ponder a series of collapsed scrums and an inability to gain possession from their own lineouts.
“We were shocking in the first half,” said captain Chris Robshaw. “We let ourselves down. Myself and the other boys gave away too many penalties away. It left us with a lot to do in the second half. There is a huge amount of potential there but you just cannot give a quality team a head start like that.”
France extended their lead to 22-6 early in the second half when Frederic Michalak provided a terrific inside pass to Huget and the Toulouse wing went charging through, leaving Mike Brown for dead and shrugging off a couple of desperate tackles.
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With less than 10 minutes left, Danny Cipriani wrong-footed several French players to score a try, which was converted by George Ford. Then, with three minutes left, England reduced the deficit to 25-20 as Jonathan Joseph went over after being set up by Brown.
“Today could be a big wake-up call,” said Sir Clive Woodward. “They came here with a bit of complacency and forgot it was a Test match against France. The lineout and scrum didn’t go well for that 65 minutes. You can’t win anywhere unless those goes well.”
Both Woodward and Will Greenwood, the 2003 England World Cup-winning centre, endorsed the credentials of Cipriani, saying that the Sale Sharks player should be part of Lancaster’s World Cup plans after his impressive 17-minute cameo.
“I have to say that Cipriani looks an amazing player,” said Woodward. “For me, he should have been playing No.10 for England for the last couple of years. He’s a class act. He has had 20 minutes and looked amazing – and in a team that is getting smashed. I thought he was gone but he comes back into the reckoning now.”
Greenwood concurred: “Cipriani has been questioned and been written off this week by most, but he has come out here and said: ‘I can play at this level.’”
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From the French perspective, the hooker Benjamin Kayser praised the “spirit” shown by the home side at the Stade de France. “The spirit we showed in the last 10 is something we will take into the World Cup. In times when we are in tough spots, we can remember this match when we really stuck together and made it happen.”
In yesterday’s other warm-up match, Scotland beat Italy 16-12 in Turin.