England ‘not good enough’ despite comfortable France win as absent manager sends message

England’s players could have enjoyed that as the fiery 59-year-old would no doubt have been furious with their early performance here. The jittery visitors were everywhere and clearly rattled by an enraged France. Latest admission: “There was a bit of a hiatus this week with me not turning up on the first day due to flight issues, Shaun’s issues with his ankle surgery and that (display) was probably a reflection of the week we’ve had .

“It was disjointed; there were some really good parts and then some average parts. Shaun texted our analyst at halftime. It was not happy with some of our contacts and it was delivered to them. There were periods when we were not where we needed to be like England.

“But it’s a great lesson for us. The four starters have been solid and Jack (Welsby) is a real, quality player. The fact that he’s only 22 and has so much big-game experience already, we’re very lucky as a nation to have someone of that quality at No.1.”

When Matty Nicholson spilled under a heavy tackle, Laurent Fraysinous’ side opened the scoring with barely two minutes on the clock. Arthur Mourgue made a perfect save for London winger Hakim Miloudi to score. Mourgue converted from wide and, after Wigan prop Luke Thompson coughed up more ball, he also added a penalty for an 8-0 lead in the 20th minute.

But England settled with a purple patch of three tries in just eight minutes. As is so often the case, the hypnotic Welsby was the instigator. He spotted space on the short side to charge forward and make Tom Johnstone drive before accepting the return pass and landing brilliantly in the corner.

Harry Smith converted and in the next set Welsby gave Harry Newman a run from halfway, the center doing well to set up Leeds team-mate Ash Handley. Winger Handley got a second soon after when Johnstone raided down the left, zig-zagging before turning the game to Newman, who again showed his command with the final pass. George Williams’ superb pass saw Catalans winger Johnstone come into his own in the 32nd minute.

Fragile France were grateful that Smith dropped his shot (he missed four of his eight attempts in total), meaning his side only led 18-8 at half-time. Wane’s side let themselves slip when Leeds second-row Mickael Goudemand headed over the line in the 51st minute. Smith took a free-kick for Nicholson to score and ease the pressure.

And Welsby added his second after a sizzling move before Williams crossed when he held up Mikey Lewis’ break, Johnstone rounding things off with his second. Last addition: “I thought Tom Johnstone was outstanding.”