Greater challenges are still to come this autumn, but to all intents and purposes, England’s victory in Avignon was a fairly satisfying first tick in the box for Wayne Bennett as coach. His side may well look back in a month’s time and see this as vital preparation for the Four Nations.
Anglo-French games at this level have been hindered by a lack of competitiveness in recent years, best epitomised by the 80-point margin of victory for England when the sides met in Leigh this time last year, their sole warm-up game for the Test series against New Zealand.
This, however, had the feel of a proper Test match and a thorough examination for England. More importantly, it was, for the most part at least, a stern challenge to efficiently prepare them for the Four Nations opener against New Zealand next Saturday in Huddersfield.
Bennett’s team selection, and indeed his interchange rotation through the game, suggested this represented an open audition for a number of places in his 17 for the first group game and there were some encouraging performances for the England coach to deliberate over in the next week.
In the absence of captain and elder brother Sam, the Burgess twins, George and Thomas, strengthened their case for inclusion with impressive performances. As did another forward, Hull’s Scott Taylor.
The new-look half-back pairing of Luke Gale and Gareth Widdop also showed promise, but Kevin Brown’s impressive cameo from the bench suggests there are still one or two difficult decisions for Bennett to make.
However, that the French led after 25 minutes was no fluke. They took the lead when the Leigh hooker, Eloi Pelissier, darted over from close range, but that was the moment England were sparked into life. By half-time they had forged a commanding 16-point advantage courtesy of four tries, three of which came in an impressive eight-minute burst.
Ryan Hall touched down in the corner following a fine pass from Jonny Lomax, before further tries from Daryl Clark, George Burgess and a second for Hall put the visitors in control at the interval.
There were moments of trepidation for the visitors in the second half again, but as the French tired and their discipline lapsed, England showed their ruthless side to add three further tries in the final quarter despite the pouring rain.
Brown’s impressive stint in the halves brought him a try 12 minutes from time before Jermaine McGillvary and Widdop crossed late on, the latter thanks to a great break from Brown, to round off a successful evening for England.
