As the current production of Hamlet at London’s Barbican has shown, what matters is not the rehearsal but the first night. On this evidence, at a ground where England gave their opponents a head start last year only to fight back and lose narrowly, the World Cup is coming too soon for the hosts who were a distant second in the set pieces, lamentably disorganised at the breakdown and far too casual in possession, but it is dangerous to regard a warm-up match as the real thing.
England are aiming to be at their peak when they play Fiji on the opening night of the World Cup next month. Fourteen players – the exception was the wing Jonny May – were making their first starts for three months on Saturday night and did not have the advantage of playing at home, which will not be an issue for the next two months. Early insouciance behind turned into frantic desperation, but by the end, having been 25-6 down on 70 minutes, they were in France’s 22 looking for the winning try having resorted to the approach that nearly won them the Six Nations.
England were all over the place for the first hour, incurring the displeasure of the referee Jaco Peyper, who will take charge of the Fiji match, at the breakdown – where they looked like a team that had had an afternoon together rather than two months – and, for the second consecutive week, in the scrum. The lineout was no better, leaving Stuart Lancaster to curse again the red mist that blurs the focus of Dylan Hartley and ruled him out of selection.
Given the lack of possession, England’s decision to run from their own half and off-load in dangerous areas, exposing their weakness at the breakdown, smacked of a gameplan triumphing over common sense. Instead of forwards keeping play tight and committing defenders to create space, ball was shovelled wide regardless. France, in contrast, played as they would in the Six Nations, the forwards establishing a supremacy for the half-backs to exert control.
For all their possession and territory (after half an hour England had made 54 tackles to their opponents’ four), France were content to accumulate points through the boots of Scott Spedding and Frédéric Michalak who, after landing the second of his five successful penalties, became his country’s highest points scorer.
Their one try came five minutes after the break, Michalak dragging Joe Marler out of the defensive line for Yoann Huget to cut through and step away from Mike Brown, and it was only when both benches had been emptied that England exerted sustained pressure.
A major disappointment for Lancaster was that, while England had looked slick, sharp and penetrative behind against France at Twickenham, a back division that but for the injured centre Brad Barritt was at full strength appeared to lack even a basic understanding, with passes dropped or misplaced. It was only once Danny Cipriani came on in the final quarter, for what was expected to be last hurrah before he is released back to Sale, that the visitors started to play what was in front of them.
Cipriani started the revival nine minutes from time, invited on the outside by Huget, who was left flat-footed by the fly-half’s David Campese-like step, and Cipriani played a key role in the second six minutes later, looping outside George Ford and putting Mako Vunipola into a hole that left Jonathan Joseph unmarked on the left wing.
The cameo probably came too late for Cipriani. There were perhaps three positions remaining to be filled in the 31-man squad before last night: the final centre position, where Luther Burrell, under pressure from Sam Burgess and Henry Slade, undermined his cause by conceding two penalties at the breakdown in the first 19 minutes; the third hooker slot, which is set to be claimed by Jamie George, who used his 30 minutes from the bench productively; and at second-row, where David Attwood provided clout after coming on for Joe Launchbury.
Lancaster and his coaches suddenly have more to think about but they will rely more on what they have seen on the training ground and on the pitch in competitive matches during their time in charge than a match played at a time when the focus in camp has been on 18 September. England lost to France in Marseille in the buildup to the 2003 World Cup, but it was not an augury of what was to come.
That said, scrum and breakdown problems for the second successive week cannot be easily dismissed. An excuse after Twickenham was that the strongest team was watching from the stand, but as the World Cup looms, do England know their best XV, having chopped and changed for the last four years?
Wales and Australia should stretch them more in the World Cup pool than a France side so bereft of confidence that it was hanging on at the end for victory, having been dominant for so long. Apart from Huget’s try, and a moment in each half when England had to defend their line, Brown marking Sébastien Tillous‑Borde’s chip to the line and Pascal Papé being held up, the home side created little.
England have made a habit of starting slowly in recent years, a weakness they will have to eradicate in the World Cup, but they tend to finish strongly and anyone watching only the final 10 minutes would have wondered how they lost.
They had until then been trying to live up to an ideal, adopting a style they wanted to rather than showing any pragmatism. It is what rehearsals are for, but come the heat of the knockout stages of the World Cup, should the hosts progress, it will be different, more shade than light. Errors will cost. Playing at home will be a considerable advantage but, as the All Blacks have shown over the years, style only becomes a factor if you get the basics right. Saturday night was a timely check on reality.
