England lose their way against clinical France

England may have led at half-time,and they may have led deep into the second half, but they had failed to cross over the French try line. And when Joe Worsley chose to ignore a try-scoring overlap,the man mountain that is Sebastien Chabal stormed up the field to score the decisive try and hand France a major boost before they host the World Cup.

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La defense: Lawrence Dallaglio gets a rude reality check as he's dumped by France scrum-half Pierre Mignoni

Man of the match Chabal may have resembled Jonah Lomu as he crashed through a series of challenges but England,who enjoyed massive territorial and positional advantage, have only themselves to blame for this confidencesapping defeat.

Suddenly a good performance, at the very least, is required by England's firstchoice XV when they take on France again next Saturday in Marseille in their last international before the World Cup begins in four weeks' time. Olly Barkley began the day's proceedings with a smartly-taken ninth-minute penalty to give England an early lead.Knowing full well that a poor performance could yet still result in World Cup omission, the Bath back converted the pressure kick well to ease his nerves and edge him closer to the back-up stand-off position behind Jonny Wilkinson.

Three minutes later France took a deserved lead after a period of concerted pressure inside the England 22 resulted in a try on a wing for, of all people, Fabien Pelous.

The French lock forward, equalling Philippe Sella's French caps record of 111, was lurking on the right wing when David Skrela's long, looping pass evaded Josh Lewsey.

The former French captain had enough power to evade Lewsey's desperate tackle,a score confirmed by the television match official. Already it was clear that this would be no repeat of last week's nine-try, record-breaking demolition of Wales.

France, after all, are the Six Nations champions, and World Cup hosts, and having named their squad for the tournament two months ago, came to Twickenham with a starting XV not far off their strongest selection. In contrast, England had selected a side designed to help Ashton decide on his own final selection of the England World Cup squad of 30, to be named on Tuesday.

Any team without captain Phil Vickery, Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson is a lesser England outfit, although Mike Catt, standing in as captain, and Lawrence Dallaglio, starting an England Test for the first time in three years, would have begged to differ. Yet it was the visitors who increased their lead in the 17th minute when David Skrela struck home a penalty after hooker Mark Regan was penalised for coming in at the side.

Hairy moment: Chabal out-muscles the England cover to seal victory for the French

Back came England in spirited style, however. Barkley reduced the arrears with a penalty after Remy Martin was offside, and then nudged England ahead after a trademark big hit from Jamie Noon on Clement Poitrenaud resulted in the penalty.

Skrela regained the advantage following an altercation between Rafael Ibanez and Regan, but Barkley gave England the last word before the break after Skrela failed to roll away.

After the interval Lee Mears came on for Regan, and Andy Gomarsall for Shaun Perry, with the new scrum-half increasing England's lead in the 55th minute with a closerange drop-goal. This signalled the introduction of the heavyweights on both sides,with Vickery and Martin Corry replacing Matt Stevens and a disappointing Simon Shaw, and Chabal, Yannick Nyanga and Frederic Michalak swapping with Pelous, Serge Betsen and Damien Traille. Jean-Baptise Elissalde had earlier come on for Pierre Mignoni, and it was the French scrum-half who narrowed the English lead down to just one point again with a penalty on the hour.

England then should have finished the job, after making the most of a Michalak mis-kick.

A smart move involving Nick Abendanon,Noon and Lewsey saw the ball reach Worsley.

All the openside needed to do was pass out to Paul Sackey on the wing and it would have been game over. Instead, Worsley failed to see the winger and the chance went begging.

This was a repeat of last week when the Wasps flanker chose to go it alone instead of utilising a twoman overlap,but yesterday the error proved far more costly. Within moments of Worsley's error France shot up field and when Chabal collected 35 metres out, he stormed through Abendanon's challenge, brushed Lewsey off and touched down in the corner. Elissalde converted and England's one-point lead had been transformed into a six-point deficit with just eight minutes remaining.

On came Wilkinson as a last throw of the dice and when Sackey went over in the corner the crowd erupted,but referee Alan Lewis had rightly blown ages earlier after Abendanon had knocked on.

It would prove to be England's last missed chance,and they leave home soil for France still some way short of being genuine contenders to successfully defend their world title.