Catt rues wasted chances

Mike Catt blamed the inability of England's backline to apply the finishing touches for the 21-15 defeat against France.

England guilty of failing to turn possession into points

Mike Catt felt poor finishing was to blame after England were beaten 21-15 in their World Cup warm-up against France at Twickenham.

England failed to score a try despite the forwards providing plenty of ball, and their wastefulness was punished when Sebastien Chabal scored France's match-winning try in the 71st minute.

"It is very disappointing," Catt told Sky Sports. "The commitment was there and we showed a lot of heart but our execution let us down.

"It was an established and experienced French side and they closed us down pretty well but we seemed to be a bit rusty as a team and we have got to iron out the mistakes.

"We've come a long way over the last eight weeks and that has put us in good stead to move forwards."

Ashton furious

Coach Brian Ashton, who names his final 30-man squad on Tuesday, echoed Catt's sentiments, saying 'you don't win World Cups playing like that'.

"You play in a game like that and work incredibly hard to put yourself into a position to win it by opening up three or four opportunities in the second-half and you blow every one of them," said Ashton.

"You don't win big games against good sides playing like that. You don't win World Cups playing like that, either.

"It was a very angry dressing room, I hope the messages of today will be taken on board very quickly and not repeated next week."

England travel to Marseille next Saturday for their final World Cup warm-up game before the defence of the Webb Ellis trophy.

Laporte satisfied

Ashton's French counterpart Bernard Laporte was happy with his side's performance, particularly as they were playing for the first time following an intensive period of training.

"We did what we had to do - to find the solution to the game," said Laporte.

"It's what we said before, that the game the score wasn't important, it was the way we played after we've been training for six weeks.

"It's more the way they played today that we are happy about and the solidarity they showed.

"One of the good points of the afternoon was the defence, we controlled the game."