England recover from poor start to beat France in Toulouse

They recovered from a rocky start to record a comfortable 40-8 victory at Stade Ernest-Wallon in Toulouse, with Warrington Wolves back-rower Nicholson touching down Harry Smith's clever kick in the second half.

Williams then finished off a Mikey Lewis break as the visitors sprinted clear, scoring eight tries after Fouad Yaha had given France a shock early lead.

George Williams touches down (Image: SWPix.com)

Ben Currie also enjoyed a solid game in the second row, as did James Harrison off the bench to give head coach Shaun Wane food for thought ahead of the season-ending series against Samoa in the autumn.

The winning margin would have been bigger had Wigan half-back Harry Smith not missed four of his eight conversion attempts, but England were made to work harder than the scoreline suggests.

France stunned the visitors by taking a third-minute lead when Fouad Yaha raced on to Arthur Mourgue's bouncing kick to score a converted try in the corner.

England struggled to get going and when Mourgue converted a 20th-minute penalty to put France 8-0 up, Wane's side had not created a scoring chance.

But that changed shortly afterwards as England clicked into gear to run in four tries in just over 10 minutes to turn their deficit into an 18-8 half-time advantage.

Jack Welsby touched down in the corner, Ash Handley finished off two moves out wide on the right and opposite wing Tom Johnstone also went over, with Smith landing only one of his first four conversion attempts.

England were forced to defend for the first 20 minutes after the restart before Nicholson ran on to Smith's clever kick to score, with Welsby going over for his second try five minutes later.

Smith converted the latter and landed two more after captain Williams had darted over and Johnstone scored his second try to complete the scoring.

Warrington Wolves pair Ben Currie and James Harrison in conversation with England assistant coach Andy Last after the game (Image: SWPix.com)