15 Mike Brown 6/10 The calmest English starter under pressure. Also sparked England to a fired-up start to the second half. Left flat-footed by Yoann Huget.
14 Jack Nowell 5/10 Good kick chase and showed plenty of energy working with scraps, but couldn’t get a hand on Huget either.
13 Jonathan Joseph 6/10 One flash before half time, otherwise 40 minutes running up blind alleys and defending. Final try flattered England.
12 Luther Burrell 6/10 Understandably eager but gave away England’s first points. The 12 shirt is as unclear as ever, but word is that Sam Burgess has the momentum.
11 Jonny May 6/10 A harder test than last week. Little to work with and less than secure – twice – under the high ball and from Frédéric Michalak’s teasing.
10 George Ford 6/10 His worst first 25 minutes in an England shirt. Kicked restart out, missed touch and failed to get hands on high ball. Saved by goal kicking.
9 Ben Youngs 5/10 Not the night for inventive play from the foot of England’s retreating scrum. More boot on ball . Like his brother, lasted 48 minutes.
1 Joe Marler 6/10 Scrum not helped by conditions, but suffered from things going on the other side of the scrum until Jamie George and Dave Attwood appeared.
2 Tom Youngs 5/10 Loads of effort and plenty of line speed, but 50-50 with his lineout throwing nowhere near good enough. Off after 48 minutes and a final miss.
3 Dan Cole 5/10 Not the first to discover Eddy Ben Arous is a handful and had a frustrating evening discovering the scrum is no longer England’s go-to weapon.
4 Courtney Lawes 6/10 Out of Test action since June 2014 and it showed. Had little chance to practice anything other than his tackling early on.
5 Joe Launchbury 6/10 Covered the acres making plenty of tackles and one clean lineout catch just before half time which really lifted the English effort.
6 James Haskell 6/10 Big tackle on Picamoles when England were under the cosh up front. He tried, but the breakdown play was not England’s finest.
7 Chris Robshaw (capt) 6/10 Not a ‘fetcher’ and it showed as France ruled the breakdown. He spent his first 40 minutes asking for clarification of England’s sins.
8 Billy Vunipola 5/10 The slimmed-down serial offender. Caught offside (by a mile) for 9-0 and a high tackle for 15-3. No8 still a big question.
REPLACEMENTS
Jamie George (for T Youngs 48) Missed first throw, but hit target ahead of Cipriani try and finished well; Danny Care (for B Youngs 48) Made his case as impact player; Dave Attwood (for Launchbury 53) Extra ballast helped; Nick Easter (for Haskell 53) Solid enough but probably third-choice No8; Danny Cipriani (for May 63) Try scorer and a class act but probably too little time to dodge the cut; Billy Twelvetrees (for Burrell 63) Eighteen minutes not enough to state any case after a mediocre years; Mako Vunipola (for Marler 65) and David Wilson (for Cole 65) The front-row damage was done by the time the Saracens arrived
FRANCE
Scott Spedding 6; Yoann Huget 5, Mathieu Bastareaud 6 (Gaël Fickou 67), Wesley Fofana 6, Noa Nakaitaci 6; Frédéric Michalak 7 (Rémi Talès 69), Sébastien Tillous-Borde 7 (Rory Kockott 70); Eddy Ben Arous 8 (Vincent Debaty 56), Guilhem Guirado 7 (Benjamin Kayser 56), Rabah Slimani 7 (Uini Atonio 63), Pascal Papé 7 (Alexandre Flanquart 67), Yoann Maestri 6, Damien Chouly 7, Bernard Le Roux 7, Louis Picamoles 8 (Yannick Nyanga 56)
