Eddie Jones admitted England were underprepared after they began their Six Nations title defence by scraping past France.
The stuttering hosts made hard work of victory at Twickenham, eventually prevailing 19-16 thanks to a first international try from replacement Ben Te’o 11 minutes from the end.
“It doesn’t get much uglier than that,” head coach Jones said. “We weren’t our usual urgent selves and maybe I’ve got to look at the preparation I gave the team, the preparation wasn’t good enough.
“But second half I thought we did enough good things to win the game.
“The attitude of the players has been first class but sometimes these things happen, it’s a game of rugby, you’ve got human beings involved. They (France) played quite well and it took us a long time to respond.
“We made some silly handling errors, just a lack of real urgency to do what we want to do, we’re a ‘go get ’em’ team and we tended to sit back a bit today but we were much better after that.
“It’s still ugly but the result’s beautiful.”
England have now won 15 successive matches since the appointment of Jones.
Captain Dylan Hartley agreed with his coach’s view of the performance but praised his side’s replacements.
“Plenty to work on, we got through that one,” Hartley said. “I think a huge amount of credit needs to go to our finishers today.
“Ben Te’o and James Haskell came on and gave us a good bit going forward at the end there so unbelievable impact from our subs.
“We dug in, we found a way and we’ll take something from that. But, look, week one of the tournament, we will take that win but there’s plenty to work on.
“We need to be a bit more clinical with the ball in hand and probably not so passive in defence.”
Stuart John Pearson
Guest
18 November 2017 at Twickenham Eddie. Long memory about Brisvegas from last year.I was at Suncorp Stadium. Plus we need a korri war dance in Sydney and Brisbane this year for the all blacks to spook them.
RobC
Roar Guru
Contrast to the SCO IRE game. ENG was terrible. France did their best to lose it despite remarkable performance of a handful of players. I think France will improve from hereon, especially support play and finishing. England probably couldn't do much worse, though it remains to be seen if they can return to form. Especially the other teams have lifted their game.
taylorman
Roar Guru
Still think England will slam it, but agree it was a poor start, but they finished well with the bench, a good sign of the depth England have. Best result for them really, a win with a warning.
Hello Everybody.
Guest
Just a bad night at the office. Too many errors from England. France looked good but if they had really played well they should have won that game imo. A couple of good things from Daly on the wing but I would go back to Nowell. Id also put Itoje back at 4 to partner Lawes and use Haskell and Wood at 6 & 7 for the next game.
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
And the ref gifted England their first 6 points, France can rightly feel hard done by - great start to the season ref ):
Neil Back
Roar Rookie
'Plenty to work on', he got that right. Poor from England despite the injuries and good from France. That was a slice of luck for the English, I hope they don't need many more. First two games already confirming this should be a tasty 6N.
Machooka
Roar Guru
Agreed Mike... this game was real test match, one that England just managed to win. So big credit to them for sticking to their guns. Picamole's MOTM award was indicative of how close a game this was... and Nathan Hughes wasn't too shabby either :)
Mike Julz
Guest
I thought France played well. Picamole was sensational, probably the best 8 in the world with Read. England tho just got out of jail, and Te'o needs more playing time coz he's a great ball runner.