Stuart Lancaster will field his first-choice side in the return World Cup warmup against France in Paris after his reserves held on at Twickenham having been overpowered up front.
England were saved by their backs in the 19-14 victory. The wings Anthony Watson and Jonny May scored three tries between them while Henry Slade and Sam Burgess, in their their international debuts, combined effectively in midfield to give Lancaster more to think about behind than he would have envisaged at the start of the summer.
“I was delighted to get the win,” said Lancaster. “To score three tries against a side of France’s quality was especially pleasing and overall we fronted up well, but we lost players to the sin-bin and the penalty count was heavily against us. That put us under pressure and the result was in doubt until the end.”
Burgess was sent to the sin-bin at the end of the first-half for trying to stop Morgan Parra taking a quick penalty and another debutant, Calum Clark, followed him after the break for tackling an opponent around the neck. Slade was fortunate not to see yellow for taking out Parra in the air from a restart.
“Sam did well,” said Lancaster. “He will be disappointed with himself over the sin-bin, but I was impressed with his decision-making about when to pass and when to carry. He has a physicality in defence which we hoped he would bring and he translated what we have seen him do in training on to the pitch.
“Henry also did well and it is exciting to have so many excellent young players coming through. He took his opportunity, but next week is another match and we have three other centres to look at. I thought Alex Goode was impressive at full-back and we caused them problems behind.”
Lancaster is likely to make 14 changes for Paris as he brings back all his regulars. The only survivor is likely to be on the wing because there are only three specialists in the squad and England will be looking for a significant improvement at forward.
“France had an experienced pack on the field and we had experience in the stands,” Lancaster said. “It will be different in Paris. Nothing has been decided about the 31 for the World Cup: we have one more match and another week off to help us decide.
“Midfield is certainly a competitive area. After losing Manu Tuilagi, we are looking for a blend in the backs and where we had Sam and Henry today, we could have Luther Burrell and Jonathan Joseph next weekend. There were a number of positives to take from the victory.”
The No8 Ben Morgan, playing his first match for eight months after suffering a broken ankle, played the first half before being replaced while the prop Kieran Brookes was taken off with a wrist injury that Lancaster said was not serious.
England were hanging on for victory at the end after the captain, Tom Wood, miscalculated and opted to kick a penalty for touch rather than go for goal. England were five points ahead but he thought a successful kick would have given France the opportunity to draw the match with a converted try.
“We said before the game that when it came to penalties, we’d only kick gimmes,” Wood said. “At the end, I went for a lineout to give us the chance to score a try and take the match away from France rather than give them the chance to draw the game. We had a number of debutants and it was a good win in front of our supporters.”
