LAWRENCE Dallaglio emerged from the ruins left by England's latest calamitous away day collapse, and conceded: "This has given us a bit of a reality check."

England did nothing to disprove the popular theory their miserable reign as world champions will end in early October when they return to the intimidating Stade Velodrome.

Assuming England emerge from a World Cup qualifying pool that also features South Africa and Samoa, Australia or Wales should be waiting for them at the quarter-final stage.

Wales will be significantly stronger than the third-rate team humbled 62-5 by Dallaglio and company at Twickenham two weeks ago, and current world rankings suggest Australia are too strong for an England side boasting a heavyweight pack but precious little else.

In successive warm-up games against France, all England's points came from kicks, while the organised French scored three well-crafted tries and showed composure at key times during the heat of battle.

The statistics make for damning reading.

Since Martin Johnson held aloft the Webb Ellis Trophy in Sydney almost four years ago, England have claimed just 16 victories from 40 starts and lost 15 of their last 16 away games, including nine in succession.

No frills France simply bided their time before sending England spinning to another totally predictable defeat on the back of centre Yannick Jauzion's touchdown and 17 points from goalkickers Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Frederic Michalak.

Critically, England conceded 10 points while lock Simon Shaw was in the sin-bin following a high tackle on Damien Traille, and with concussed captain Phil Vickery having already been carried off, there was no way back.

Dallaglio, a second-half replacement for the wholly ineffective Harlequins number eight Nick Easter, said: "When you are down a man like that, you have got to redouble your efforts.

"There will be times in the World Cup when we might be down a man, and we've got to learn to be able to cope. That said, I didn't think it was a sin-binning - Simon hit him on the shoulder.

"But we contributed to our own downfall by giving away so many penalties.

"We didn't have much of a cutting edge, but tries were always going to be at a premium. Our problem was we were never really on the front foot after the first 10 minutes.

"It has given us a bit of a reality check. We've got a couple of weeks to learn from this, and we've got to make sure we don't make the same mistakes in our World Cup campaign.

"I think what it is going to take is an extra 20 to 30% from every player, but we are good enough."

Majority

Dallaglio's optimism will not be shared by the majority of England fans set to flood France next month.

Not only are England likely to bow out of World Cup contention early, current evidence suggests they could depart with barely a whimper.

Jonny Wilkinson's left boot will not be sufficient to bring home rugby union's biggest prize this time around, not when it comes to stopping teams like the Springboks, New Zealand or France.

Wilkinson's penalty hat-trick took him past Australian Michael Lynagh into third place on Test rugby's all-time points chart - Wilkinson now has 915 - yet in keeping with so many other England players, his general game was poor.

Wilkinson talked about "holding our discipline" and "knowing what the answer is," yet England patently lack the all-round game to make any significant World Cup impact.

Individuals like Easter, Bath lock Steve Borthwick and Saracens centre Andy Farrell - who were all challenged to produce telling performances by head coach Brian Ashton - wilted under pressure.

Had it not been for the tireless efforts of scrum-half Shaun Perry or flanker Tom Rees - allied with France blowing another probable 15 points through wasteful finishing or inaccurate kicking - England would have suffered a fearful drubbing.

Wing Josh Lewsey said: "Last week against France (at Twickenham) we knew we had the beating of them, but we let this game slip away.

"We thought we had learnt the lessons, but we didn't put them into practice. We feel we didn't do ourselves justice.

"We weren't good enough, but we need to rectify that. This would have been a massive feather in our cap."

The game was effectively decided in one incident.

Irish referee Alain Rolland yellow-carded Shaw for his lunge at Traille, and in the same collision, Vickery was laid out, requiring lengthy medical attention before being carried away.

Shaw felt Rolland's decision was "harsh," yet France did not require a second invitation to capitalise, striking a telling blow when Michalak's exquisite inside pass put Jauzion through despite the combined tackles of Perry and Farrell.

Only Argentina have ever beaten France in Marseille, and England never seriously threatened to emulate the Pumas.

Previous French scalps at the Stade Velodrome included England, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, which underlined the degree of difficulty facing Vickery's team.

Next up for England are opening World Cup opponents the USA in Lens on September 8. Six days later, they face South Africa, but the real battle - retaining the Webb Ellis Trophy - already looks lost. Tweet