England back with a bang

England responded to their RBS Six Nations problems with an emphatic 34-10 five-try victory over France on Sunday.

Indiscipline issues had scuppered hopes of success in their last two Tests against Wales and Ireland, but Martin Johnson's men delivered a much improved display in every department on their return to Twickenham.

The inconsistent Bleus were the team to feel their wrath with Mark Cueto, Riki Flutey (two), Delon Armitage and Joe Worsley running in tries in a rampant first 50 minutes from the hosts.

Dimitri Szarzewski and Julien Malzieu scored second-half consolations for the French, but in the end it was England who emerged triumphant for the third successive occasion against the French in Six Nations rugby.

Stunning

Toby Flood got England's penultimate game of the tournament under way and the hosts looked threatening with ball in hand right from the get go.

An early ruck in midfield saw Flutey break down the blindside past Sebastien Chabal before the Harlequins star fed Cueto for the perfect start. Flood converted in front of the posts and England had a 7-0 lead inside two minutes.

Early handling errors were not helping the French cause and outside of a Mathieu Bastareud burst they rarely looked dangerous. Ugo Monye outpaced Julien Malzieu on the outside to underline England's superiority, but they were fortunate to see Morgan Parra miss his long range penalty attempt on 10 minutes.

Flood responded with a successful penalty kick of his own as France paid for their indiscipline and with England's performance founded on strong defence and quality set-pieces it was not long before they added to the score.

A lineout on the French 22 formed the platform for Cueto's break and the Sale winger this time repaid the favour by sending Flutey over for a second converted try.

France looked ragged and laboured at that stage and conceded two quick-fire tries just before half-time. Armitage finished the first move out wide, started by Six Nations debutant Flutey stealing the ball from Chabal. Flood then converted, but was forced off the field with a shoulder injury moments later.

Harry Ellis had kicked through to the line, but the Newcastle fly-half slipped just short and Worsley was on hand to finish. Armitage missed the conversion attempt, but England still went in 29-0 up at half-time.

Professional

England picked up where they left off after the interval as Andy Goode made an immediate impact starting the move that led to the fifth try after Yannick Jauzion had knocked on.

Armitage showed a clean pair of heels down the line as France's defence was cut to ribbons and Flutey was again in the right place to finish. Despite a missed conversion attempt from Goode it was scintillating stuff from the hosts.

France did eventually muster some attacking threat, though, and their sustained spell of forward pressure was finished by Szarzewski after England had conceded a number of penalties on, and in front of, their own line. Parra again erred with the boot and so the score stayed at 34-5.

A whole host of changes saw England spend much of the remaining time defending in their own 22 and after referee Stuart Dickinson had warned captain Steve Borthwick that another infringement would receive a yellow card, England conceded a second try.

Les Bleus used the overlap coming off the scrum to send Malzieu over and, though Parra missed his third kick to let a lapsing England team off the hook, it was much better from the visitors.

Johnson's side withstood the pressure to emerge with a heartening win, that makes them the top try scoring team in the competition with 13 ahead of their match with Scotland next week.