English coach Martin Johnson finally had something to smile about as his England side produced an emphatic 34-10 win over visitors France at Twickenham on Sunday.
Wing Mark Cueto got on the score sheet after just 67 seconds, crowning a simple but well worked move off the back of a ruck. It was the first of their five tries, which had them leading 34-0 early in the second half.
Riki Flutey scored twice, with Delon Armitage and Joe Worsley also crossing for nice tries.
After successive defeats to Wales and Ireland, and being handed 10 yellow cards in their previous four matches, this result was welcome relief to Johnson, who hasnt had the smoothest of rides as coach so far.
“When we do what we did today we look like a good team,” said Johnson. “That was great.
“I don’t think our intensity level was higher. Our precision level was better – the guys saw opportunities and took them.
“I am very happy for the guys and there’s a good feeling of satisfaction in the changing room.”
“It just showed that when we executed what we wanted to do we could open them up and score tries.
“The guys have confidence in what we are doing and to turn them into clinical tries was great.
“There are still lots of improvements to make, but in the heat of the game there are always going to be mistakes and it’s about minimising them.”
“Centres Mike Tindall and Riki Flutey are getting better and better,” he said. “Mike brings that leadership and his defence work is solid, while Riki even ripped the ball off Sebastien Chabal in the build-up to one of the tries.”
“The important thing now is to have a good performance next week. Scotland had a real go against Ireland, they’ll want to finish off their season by beating England at Twickenham.”
Time:
02:58
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