Rugby World Cup 2015: England squad finalised on Thursday

England’s preparations for the home World Cup suffered a setback after they slumped to a 25-20 defeat by France that at least featured a stirring late fightback.

“(The game) is another step to the Rugby World Cup, we are keen to show France that we are in form”.

With 10 minutes remaining France were leading 25-6 before tries from Danny Cipriani and Jonathan Joseph gave the scoreline an element of respectability.

Scotland begin their World Cup campaign against Japan in Gloucester on September 23rd. “We played well in phases but you can’t wait for 40 minutes to do that”.

Lancaster, however, gave little indication he will change his mind, with Luther Burrell and Sam Burgess also likely to edge out the fast-maturing Slade.

The England forwards appeared to bring their side back into the encounter, but it was certainly too late, even if Joseph’s try led to a lengthy passage of English possession in the French half as the clock ran out.

When Jamie George makes his debut off the bench on Saturday, he need only keep it simple to ensure his presence at England 2015.

Cipriani, along with forwards Nick Easter and Dave Attwood, impressed from the bench against Les Bleus, although the competition at fly-half and full-back makes his selection awkward.

Scott Spedding landed France’s first three points from inside his own half after Burrell conceded a penalty, and another error, this time from Dan Cole, allowed Frederic Michalak to fire his first of five penalties.

World Cup victor Neil Back is convinced the uncertainty surrounding boss Stuart Lancaster’s starting XV will come back to haunt him this autumn. I’ve had a lot of positive messages on Twitter with people saying ‘I would like to see you in [the squad]’. On the flip side England’s set-piece foundations, discipline, breakdown work and accuracy were nowhere near where they should have been on Saturday night and weeks of intense training have not noticeably improved the quality of their decision-making. “We didn’t play well in the first half and gave ourselves too much to do”, said head coach Lancaster. Things will go wrong from time to time and it’s a shame we won’t be seeing Manu and Dylan strutting their stuff on the global stage, but I’m confident they’ll be better players for what’s happened and I’m as confident as anyone can be that the other guys understand their responsibilities. Yes there are areas of concern, in particular England’s pack, for this was the second week in a row that they were pushed around however we know that they are capable of delivering world class output.